>> University only for the privileged?
The university system has bifurcated to mirror the rest of the culture.
Unless your family is wealthy, you're at the very top scholastically or can throw a football like Peyton Manning, big name private schools are out of reach for kids from most families.
With one income, we put both our kids through well known private schools.
My son and his wife are both well-paid professionals who are (almost) as frugal as I was at that age, but well known private schools are out the question for their kids who are better than average students (much better than I or either of their parents were at that age), but not in the top 1% academically.
There are some viable alternatives, though.
Kids can start in community colleges at very low cost or no cost at all and then transfer to a more costly school. Basically that halves the cost.
Commuting saves a lot money. There are some good reachable schools in this area.
One of them is considering ROTC.
So, one way or the other, they'll make it through.