You exaggerate. Mostly it's people who don't do well at their colleges that have trouble. At Ivy Leagues it's fewer people because they have the worst grade inflation and don't accept many borderline students.
For state schools there are lots of people at the margin - IE they don't do well enough to really reap a benefit from their degree.
Maybe getting good grades at a public won't get you 6 figures in your first job, but in most fields you aren't going to get that from an Ivy League, either.
But if you do well or choose a good major your in state school will be fine - you'll get a job, and it'll pay alright.
This is 3 or 4 times as true if you're planning on being something like a Nurse or a Teacher and less true if you're planning on being a hedge fund manager, but frankly if I were a student I'd be happy for the future hedge fund managers of the world to go somewhere else.
I have a degree from a cow college. I'm very good at what I do. But I'm at a disadvantage: my network doesn't include people who are valuable to know. The dudes who started Dropbox are dudes friends of mine knew in college. People like that aren't in my rolodex. That's what these colleges are for: social entry into that class of mover shaker, be it MIT for tech or an Ivy for politics. This stuff is the difference between having doors open to you and needing a crowbar to get anywhere. I happen to be both good enough to demand attention and savvy enough recognize when there's an opening, but I get that getting where I am now has been a luck-based thing.
And that's a tech degree, mind. I get the feeling you really have no idea how hard it is to find a livable-wage job if aren't in tech or cleaning bedpans. The idea that fundamentally irrational people - teenagers! - should be expected to make decisions to actively limit their upside based on a downside risk they literally cannot contextualize is a failure to understand humans.
I think it's fine to expect teenagers to make decisions.
The real problem is that we enable them with low expectations. Give students high expectations and teach them how to evaluate their options instead of giving them tripe, rule of thumb, and aspiration without realism or planning.
(Also, I do know people who've gotten 4 year degrees and then done things like become correction officers or pharmacy technicians (which don't require degrees).)
That said, there is something to be said for luck. And paying for entry isn't the only way to make connections. It's just the most disgusting, and part of the reason people think certain things resemble giant fraternities.
Hope is not lost in this situation - you just have to work at it more. I'm a stellar mind who also went to public schools for undergrad and grad, but I focused on self-development and networking after.
I went from $50k a year to likely over $120k (that is in negotiation) in the span of 1 1/2 years of hard effort &learning.
I too racked up lots of debt from school, about $200k total. I am forced to focus on money because of this. I made the decision to go all in on developing my career & making the decisions I deferred until after grad school.
For state schools there are lots of people at the margin - IE they don't do well enough to really reap a benefit from their degree.
Maybe getting good grades at a public won't get you 6 figures in your first job, but in most fields you aren't going to get that from an Ivy League, either.
But if you do well or choose a good major your in state school will be fine - you'll get a job, and it'll pay alright.
This is 3 or 4 times as true if you're planning on being something like a Nurse or a Teacher and less true if you're planning on being a hedge fund manager, but frankly if I were a student I'd be happy for the future hedge fund managers of the world to go somewhere else.