This is the USA. Some of our "damn peasants" are the best and brightest. That is what makes us the USA, and what has set us apart from the rest of the world, and from the rest of human history.
You would probably be shocked at the lack of formal education of some of our best statesmen among the founders, framers, and former presidents.
The Meaningless Box Checkers amongst us will never understand that. They buy into the notion that today's college professors and today's so-called elite Universities are the center of real world common sense, experience and knowledge.