Why have colleges become so expensive? Shouldn't that issue be addressed first?
I think much of the ridiculously high student loan balances are either from doing professional school like med school, and then the income should be enough to easily handle them.
Or it's people who go to private colleges, esp. if they also . Which can be a good career move or it could be something silly like going to a small private lib arts college for BS and PhD in Medieval French Poetry or something.
Public universities are much cheaper, and if you have financial need, there are also federal Pell Grants and many states have programs too. Georgia has the lottery-funded HOPE scholarship that mays most of in-state public university tuition if you maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher.
But you are right that even public school tuitions have increased much faster than inflation. There are many reasons for that, not the least the diversocrats and other administration parasites Trausti mentioned. But also, facilities have become a lot nicer - dorms, libraries, student center, rec center all look nice in order to compete with other colleges. And that costs millions. In Germany, for example, tuition is free, but facilities are much older and drabber looking as a rule.