Wow, where to start?
"I work full time as a cnc operator making $17 an hour w/union. And $1 annual raises until $20." The truth of the matter is that your current pay scale is anything but secure. Your type of job is worth about $10 per/hour which is exactly what you will be earning there once a venture capitalist group purchases the company. Fortunately at your age, you haven't had the time to setup a family and a budget based on the type of pay you are currently making.
"I have a lot of bills..i have $750 rent , $150 car payment , $515 a month car insurance( i was an idiot behind the wheel when i was in high school, still paying) $225 phone bill, which my brother splits with me." Seeing as how you haven't even listed all of your expenses, I would agree that you do indeed have a ton of bills! How much do you have left over once you add in the cost of fuel and maintenance on your commuting vehicle, food, and the cost of keeping a girlfriend? Thinking back to the first part, how in the world are you going to meet these expenses when your pay gets cut by 40%?
"( i was an idiot behind the wheel when i was in high school, still paying)" "I am thinking about transfering shifts, say to 2nd or night shift, and going to school full time during the day." So was it only behind the wheel that you acted this way, or did it extend to the class room as well? If you weren't a pretty darn good student in high school you're going to find college level classes harder than you might think. Add the fact that you've been away from school for a few years. Add the fact that your current budgetary woes seem to require you to work all that overtime. Add the fact that you're going to have to figure out a way to pay for college.
Where to end? Like I said before, you are lucky that you are still young and aren't stuck with a family and all of the budget woes that can cause. In my honest opinion, I think you need to seriously look into going the trade school route that could give you the chance at a skilled trade type of job in the future. These types of schools will give you the chance to work on the actual education you need for your job, while skipping past all of the extraneous classes you need to take for a full degree. You will become what college deans like to call an "educated idiot" because you haven't taken a half a dozen English classes amongst many others. Does your chosen career path require that much English?
In the short term, try to bid over to second or third shift to see if you can acclimate yourself to working when it's dark and sleeping when the fish are biting. You can probably figure that this is going to take two or three years to complete. When you are done, you're going to add another monthly payment to pay for it, so make sure that the schooling you get is going to give you a job that will help pay for it. Also, don't assume that you'll be staying with the same company you are working for right now. Study the job opportunities in the area you think you'd like to raise a family, be realistic about the future potential of that type of work, and whatever else you do, don't go crazy with student loans.