Nothing is free - that's the first thing. Secondly college education is not only NOT a guarantee for success/wealth/prestige/high value status...not all people are capable of performing above minimum standards academically.
Yet colleges are already overcrowded with people who are functionally illiterate and could not write a grammatically correct paragraph - much less perform functionally basic skills in high school level arithmetic and algebra.
The things I just typed are true and it seems nobody is willing to stand up and say it outloud for fear of being accused of bigotry and eliticism.
I don't know the statistics on it but I am willing to bet that at least half of the people applying for college entrance would be far better served learning a trade. Trades can be very lucrative if one has strong work ethic and drive.
It seems like an obviously better strategy to learn trade skills or to get into some kind of certification curriculum (like dental hygienist or lab tech for example ) where one is most likely to find success than to waste time and money in failing attempts to perform in college. Poly-tech is the way to go for most people.

The problem with free stuff is that the recipient is the product being sold.