Career switch…. Questions

I am almost 30 and considering going into radiology. I have my bachelors in recreational therapy but that was over 5 years ago so I know I’ll need to re-do my A&P courses. I saw ARRT offers an imaging assistant pathway which sounds appealing because I could work on the competencies while staying at my current job to pay the bills, but is it worth doing that? Or should I just suck it up and do a 2 year program off the bat instead of prolonging the process since it seems like I’d need to do an associates degree program eventually anyway…

Second question (and very highly unlikely) but has anyone gotten lucky and found a program through any clinics or hospitals that will allow you to work as an imaging tech while you’re in school for the associates program and pay for the schooling? As an almost 30 year old, more student loan debt and trying to attend classes and work full time is kind of overwhelming. My logic was that if I was in the field getting the experience and exposure while taking the classes to advance, it would put me in a better position… just not sure how to go about finding these programs if they even exist…