The bars are just there in case they try to escape before their college time is up.
New Mexico had this great scheme a couple of years ago: require (how they love that word!) everyone to apply to at least one freakin’ college as a condition of graduating from high school.
Now obviously I don’t know how this turned out. I strongly suspect it simply sank out of sight. For for them even to contemplate such nonsense calls their sanity into question. Merciful heavens! We are governed by chowderheads who think like this?
There are already way, way, way too many kids in college! And way too many colleges.
The original news item wasn’t available, so I couldn’t tell whether the students would be required to attend a college that accepted them or whether the application itself was the only requirement. Even if only the latter, however, and if students choose not to attend if accepted, such a program is still a form of extortion, since most colleges charge a processing fee for each application.
I think all they required was the application, not acceptance. It’s sort of a tax on defenselessness.
That state is an enigma. It’s only a 90 minute drive from here, but I avoid it like the plague.