My son (mid-20s) said he is the only one of his friends who isn’t burdened by heavy student debt. My daughter’s friend is in her last year of medical school - and looking at $500-600,000 in student loan debt.
I would suggest students go into the trades. I had to call a plumbing service for an emergency - had to call three before I found one that would come out, the rest were booked solid for a month.
I suggest overall career planning with no bias for or against college before first picking a career and researching from the people already in that career how much they make, what the job is like in real life, and what kind of training is good for that career. If they say a college (or grad) degree in particular majors from particular schools, fine -- research the costs at those schools. Don't ask the schools if they're good -- let the people who'll one day hire you tell you what school training they're looking for. I suggest the same with blue collar work -- let the workers or managers of workers already in that field tell you which trade schools are good.
Only after you've done your homework on where you want to wind up and what it'll take to get there, then go to school. That's what I did when I was in 11th grade. I asked programmers and their managers what it's like being them and what it'd take to get me where they are. Almost all of them told me to get a BS in computer science from a handful of different colleges they respected, with most of them suggesting a local university. I got the degree and before I walked the stage I accepted my starting programmer position making what today would be about $60K, in a low cost of living area.