Dale,
You have hit a sore spot with me. The local chapter of MGs do nothing but raise plants to sell--no community gardens, no demonstration gardens, no hot-line for gardening questions. However, when there is a problem with a plant the local nurseries get to supply an answer.
I saw the curriculum guide for the MG class,and it was a smattering of this and that, with no depth in any one area. I think the graduate MG is supposed to follow up in an area of interest to him/her and become more expert.
Frankly, I'd buy a couple of good gardening books, hang around someone that has a garden, and learn from experience. It is cheaper and probably just as fruitful (pun intended).
By the way, I am a certified Master Naturalist, have gardened both flowers and vegetables for over 40 years, and our garden was a Demonstration Garden for Texas Parks and Wildlife until we moved to a small farm where I could REALLY get dirty!

I am a Master Gardener in Southern Indiana. I feel we have a great program in this area. It depends I think on where you are. I would check to see what programs they are involved in and see if it is worth your trouble. Some areas may not be as active as others. I feel we are very lucky here. We have numerous gardens around the area that our people are involved in. In addition we are in the process of developing a public dispay garden. We have been working on it a couple of years now. Just one part of it is a Victory Garden which donated over 6,000 lbs of produce to the local food pantry.

In addition, there are so many new friends to be made. We have probably 250 members and there is always something going on.

The education from the Master Gardener program is very good. Depending again on who the teacher is and the location.

I would say go for it. Don't be discouraged by negative experiences of a few. Life is too short. If you want to do then I would say DO IT.