Should College Students be Required to Attend Class?

I always believed that when you graduate high school and started college that you had some freedom to do pretty much anything. I was under the impression that class attendance was voluntary not obligatory. Well was i in for a shock when I showed up the first day for my classes and found out that in every class I went to they each said the same thing, that if I missed more than four days I would fail the class. I was of course very upset finding this out because I was planning on skipping class whenever I felt like it for whatever reason I deemed worthy.
Although I finally came to grips with this harsh fact and unfortunately went to class. The problem was that I could not stay awake in any of my classes to hear my professors lectures, except for one or two. The reason I could not stay awake is because firstly, they were really boring, and secondly, because I could read all the information they were saying out of the text book and there was really no point in wasting my time not listening to them when I could go home and read the material myself which I had to do in the first place.
I say all that simply to say that I do not believe in the least that students should be required to attend class. If they do not want to attend class that is the students personal decision to do so. The schools are still getting paid their money, so I do not see what the problem is. The responsibility is on the student to know the material and if he/she can do that out of class just as well as he/she can do it in class I think that should be allowed.