Much of the accurate, disastrous turn to higher education that you describe can be attributed to our national government’s funding of student loans and grants.
Parents now take their children from college to college, watching for what package of dorms and dining halls, athletic and other extra-curricular facilities will grab their offspring’s interest. Only tangentially does cost enter into the equation.
I’m 62. When I was in grade school, Mrs. Gates took us to the school library. Taught us how to use that diabolical card catalogue. We were expected to read. Required to read.”Tomorrow’s assignment is to read pages 88 through 131 in Oliver Twist.” And there were tests, book reports, a summer reading list of a dozen books. You might not like everything, but sooner or later, you found something you wanted to read about.