Giving a few thousand for a student to reimburse his/her tuition or get a CFI rating is just the beginning. Unless the FAA/DOT raise pilot salaries and benefits, there will never be a free flowing pilot supply, and the regional job will be as good as a bus driver (and i dont mean Airbus!). Couple that with the thousands of flight schools to choose from and you a get a very lean trainee number per flight school, all of which want to stay in business and partner with an airline which is impossible.
The solution would be having a cadet program in which students from 0 to ATPL obtain a college degree at their cost, but obtain their licenses from an accredited flight school, at the airlines cost (might as well throw in government subsidy). This can be done maybe during summer semester or like a co-op program while in school, - partnered with a US regional airline after graduation. The student would then agree to fly with the regional for X amount of years, failing to do so they would pay on a pro rated basis, the cost of the flight training incurred.
Signing bonuses, rebate and training (i.e. CFI) are added bonuses to help the applicant decide over a competitor. Seems the airlines are marketing the wrong idea, no student cares which CRJ/ERJ they fly, especially when you got 45k+ uni debt + another 45-60k flight training.....
I really hope they create a universal system, this would help the majors as well in planning for the future, knowing when each pilot would be eligible to move from the regional. If lets say the cadet after graduation must stay a minimum 4 years as FO, they can either upgrade to Capt. or move to the major. The salaries should be competitive throughout.
Those students/mature adults who choose not to get a degree or want a career change, or don't meet the requirements for the cadet program... can do it the old fashioned way...with all the cadets going on to fly the regionals, there would still be your average B1900 type jobs available.