> Most of society's direct expenses in their education is in the K-12 phase

True that K-12 costs more, but public assistance in higher education is substantial [1]. From grants, subsidized loans to directed money into public universities, it's a sizable investment at the state and federal level. It'd be more efficient to take that money and invest it directly in vocational schools if we knew people would utilize it and then swap careers due to burn out.

1 - https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-bri...

Edit: Updated reference to 2019 version.