For me going to college was about getting away from my horrible family. They still managed to screw me over and prevent me from finishing my last year of schooling, but my life was forever made better by the distance.

The class stratification in society is absolutely intense, if you're coming from a bad family you just need to get away from them as soon as you can. I made the mistake of not estranging myself from my own family much sooner. If I could change one thing about the way America works I'd eliminate the requirement for parental involvement when it comes to getting financial aid.

If your parents like to beat you up, you should be able to just walk out when you're 18 and get help to go to school. But that's not the system now. Aside from a small handful of exceptions which are painfully difficult to get, you're basically on your own. I think in Europe everyone just gets help to go to college so this isn't an issue there.

It is not 70% of kids, and this number is not hard to look up. It has been trending around 30% for enrollment into 4-year institutions. Of those, ~60% complete the degree within 6 years.

I agree that most students who got to college don't make good use of the time or investment, but it is still a minority of people who even attempt college.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_302.60.a... https://nces.ed.gov/FastFacts/display.asp?id=40

I got 70% from here:

https://admissionsly.com/percentage-who-go-to-college/

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/14/fewer-kids-going-to-college-...

Then reform college: you need to increase the chances that make instances like that thing holding office in Missouri incidents of the past. You need to educate people, to help develop the eyes to see and cringe.