I think it was a combination of COVID and well-intentioned bad advice from school. As high school freshmen they went home during COVID lockdown for almost two

I think it was a combination of COVID and well-intentioned bad advice from school. As high school freshmen they went home during COVID lockdown for almost two years of useless home “school”. Teachers assigned work they never graded, and others assigned work they never taught (or the students just didn’t understand). But the bar was so low that all these kids passed their classes anyway. What’s the message that sends? Certainly not that school matters. They also heard a lot from 20-something teachers about how much student loans cost and how important it is to think hard about your major and financing. All good advice, but what my kids heard is that college is an unaffordable waste of time unless you want to be a doctor or engineer—and that’s not what they want. But they also do seem to have some expectation that college won’t really matter for them. Maybe more changes like this one in the article will make that come true, but that seems like a risky bet. And to be clear, I’m not complaining about the OP article. I think it’s a good thing to unwind the credential creep that has happened in hiring.