then we would see to it in high school, as we did for our first couple hundred years. College is too late. Recent surveys reported by the National Association of Scholars reveal that (on average) college students actually do worse on American history in their senior year than they do their freshman year. They learn other stuff of course but as for becoming an "educated polity," college doesn't do it.
Spot on.
College is mainly an expensive and not-so-healthy extended adolescence for many.