The volume of kids who hit the portal this year almost had to result in this. Who knows if what we saw this year will become the new norm, but I suspect that it likely will settle down quite a bit after this round of musical chairs doesn’t end well for a lot of kids.
It’s hard to put any of this on the kids themselves. Ultimately they do have a choice so, yeah… they get some of the blame here. That said, I suspect that a LOT of very bad advice that was hardly given in service of these kids has lead them to where they are.
Pro tip. If you go into the portal, you best have a new home already secured. If you don’t, you darn well better be the bell of the ball, otherwise… FAFO.