You would think so, but historically, those at the top of a smaller economy often prefer that situation rather than expanding the economy at the risk of losing their (or their kids’) positional status or ranking within the economy, even if a lower ranking within a larger economy would mean a better standard of living for themselves (or their kids) in an absolute sense.
The post-WW2 expansion of low cost state universities, other increases in economic opportunity for those born into lower and middle income families, and decreases in economic inequality (partially due to much higher income tax rates on the highest incomes) is probably a historical anomaly. Even then, participation in that opportunity was blocked or made more difficult for those who happened to be black.
While college was not free for the boomers, it was cheap enough (and high school graduate jobs well paying enough) that many more then were able to work their way through college without parental assistance (perhaps with student loans in the hundreds of dollars, versus tens of thousands of dollars today). Today’s generations could only dream of being able to do that.