Nothing for now. His grades were good enough to get him into most low-selectivity colleges and he was not picky at all. And he’s in NC, so it would have been as about as affordable as any state. But no public-school deal would have covered anything not directly related to Tuition+R&B. And he had no realistic way to cover the financial gap between T+R&B and the true total cost of attending a 4yr residential university. Not to mention he had siblings at home he felt could benefit from the $20-$50 he might be able to send home every few weeks.
I tried to convince him of the CC-to-4yr path, but he didn’t like that and felt his only good options were 4yr immediately or go to work. He decided 4yr immediately was unrealistic so he focused on getting work and getting out of the house.