How to pay for college/is this reasonable?

My parents say that I have to go to a public state school unless I get a scholarship. However, I would be very unhappy at the state school where I live, because I would basically be living the exact same life I've been living for the past ten years. My parents have also been sending me to this really expensive private school since the second grade, and threatened to send me to public school whenever I misbehaved. I realize now that I would much rather go to the better, more expensive college then high school, so I offered to go to public school next year (senior year) to free up the college expenses, as well as get a job to help pay, and even take a year off just for working after I graduate. My mom refused this request, even though going to public school would give me $20,000, much more than most scholarships, and getting a job for a couple years would add thousands more to that. Does anyone have any ideas that my picky parents would go for? They seem unwilling to compromise because they think that I have no clue what I'm talking about and what I want--which is false.