The proportion of high school graduates in Tennessee who are going directly to college, for example, has fallen to 53% — down 11 percentage points since 2017.

Her students’ parents “just don’t value education the way they did in the past,” said Amanda DeBord, an adviser in a statewide program in Tennessee called Advise TN. “I feel like that’s been slipping for a few years.”

Why Americans are increasingly dubious about going to college