America, built on the dream of upward mobility, has become a country of deepening divide between rich and poor. The surest way to narrow the wealth gap is to earn a college degree. As college becomes more expensive and student debt rises, what's at stake for America?

“....it's a huge problem. We'll have a two-class society where the richer families are able to support the scholarship and you'll have an inner-city, mostly minority group that's no longer going to those elite colleges and therefore a lot of the high paying professions are out of their reach. So that's really bad at an individual level. It's also very bad for the country and our basic founding credo of equal opportunity and our economic strength.”

—Bill Gates, in 60 Minutes’ interview on the Gates Millennium Scholars Program funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

“Last year, 28 percent of Princeton's freshmen [were] first-generation or low-income. 60 percent of the student body receives financial aid. ...they're considered low-income. At Princeton, that means [a] household income of less than $65,000 a year.”

—Scott Pelley, 60 Minutes, CBS News

“It's a new way of making sure that we have the diversity on our campus to deliver on the kind of education that we care about and that the world needs.”

—Christopher Eisgruber, President, Princeton University

From 60 Minutes: Why Bill and Melinda Gates put 20,000 students through college

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-college-tuition-why-bill-and-melinda-gates-put-20000-students-through-college/