It's called the "enrollment cliff" and it's a reduction in the number of 18 year olds, i.e. potential college freshmen.

https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/looming-enrollmen...

Fewer and fewer kids and parents interested in paying (and borrowing) tens of thousands per year and 4 years of their youth for an education with a high probability of a low return on investment.

I assume ke88y had their oldest child born in 2008.

2008 was the beginning of the global financial crisis and 18 is the age when one typically goes to college, so 2026 will be the first freshman class to have lived their entire lives in a post-global-financial-crisis world.