End all government student loans. Government pisses away money like candy without regard for cost/benefit. The ridiculous push to make everybody go to college resulted in this mess.
If you want to go to college, do it on your own. My dad was smart back in the 40s. He worked in a copper mine drilling blasting holes during the summer, but, during the school year, he was a food server in a sorority! Smart guy, my dad!
There are large swaths of the U.S. that would look like a Mad Max no-go zone if not for the only employers to channel money through; taxpayer-funded grammar schools and high schools, possibly a regional hospital, and possibly a college.
Someone's got to keep the landlords, car loan and mortgage financiers, and medical industry in business.
The government also gains when students get useless degrees because those graduates are likely to end up being teachers which are needed to continue the cycle of forcing taxpayers to subsidize non-viable areas.