As reported by forbes.com, "There are 45 million borrowers who collectively owe nearly $1.6 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S," which is an absolutely staggering figure and incredibly debilitating to those that are indebted to those higher educational institutions. In a time in which, colleges are able to be more virtual in providing learning as a viable option to its students, and of which, the cost of computing power, networking, and communicating has never been more cost efficient; rather than the costs of college becoming lower as well as more competitive in aggregate, or at least providing more bang for the buck in total, we have seen the costs of college education skyrocket at rates far exceeding the inflation rate, and placing thereupon this extra burden upon the students' shoulders and their wallets, instead.
Further to the point, in this new world, in which achieving a college degree seems to be a prerequisite in order to have a fair opportunity to earn a good salary; that educational requirement essentially places what has to be looked upon as a huge tax burden upon those that haven't even begun to earn their own keep, as of yet. Additionally, colleges of all types, but especially those pernicious online "for profit" colleges of questionable merit, have high percentages of dropouts that therefore do not earn that college degree but are unfortunately stuck with the burden of paying for something that was never completed. Also, there are those that go through the whole rigmarole in getting their college degree only to find out that in the real world, their degree accounts them nothing, except some begrudging credit that they at least, stayed the course, and got a graduate degree, but apparently not one of any real value in finding gainful employment of fair compensation in their study subject of choice.
The fact that college costs have soared over the last few decades is a clear reflection that at the highest levels of those involved in the cost structure of these colleges, that there is an implicit collusion between these institutions to drive those costs ever higher and to burden therefore students as well as those guaranteeing those loans to the students; of which those doing the guaranteeing, ultimately remains the taxpayers in whole. That is to say, many college institutions are all about extracting as much money as possible from the students attending their college, in the recognition that they will be fully paid by the government in a timely manner, or its equivalency, and thereby are blithely unconcerned how those students personally deal with that debt. This thus makes colleges, very motivated, as a collective unit, to simply push up their prices, year by year, because, quite obviously, the higher the price, the better the reward and the better the growth for those colleges, which clearly benefits the vested interests behind those colleges, at the direct expense of those students so attending, as well as those taxpayers guaranteeing the payment of.
The only possible solution to this current conundrum is really as straightforward, as it being mandated by law, that each State of this union, be required to provide a reasonably price college of higher learning to all those students meeting a certain certified standard, of which those college tuition costs would be forever tied to inflation, so as to remain a direct benefit to those students and for the express benefit of this country.