In times past, before student loans and federal grants and subsidies, students still got a college education.
The problems started when everyone HAD to have a college degree. The colleges took advantage and tuition went up.
Also, nobody seeks to be a welder, plumber, electrician or auto mechanic any more.
Anytime the government is paying the bills, costs inflate almost immediately. If colleges know that Uncle Sam is paying for the student loans, then they know they can increase tuition and still get paid. It's the same for defense contractors who charge thousands of dollars for a toilet seat. The government's paying so what the hey.
I read an article the other day about some gal who had a $499,000+ student loan to repay for a degree in a field where she will never be able to make enough money to afford to pay it back.
No private bank would have approved a loan so large because they would know that the student could never pay it back. Maybe a course of two in finances and economics might have prevented this gal from doing something so stupid.
Obama as much as said, that the government would bail out the students of their debt at some point when the majority couldn't pay. Well, I think we're well beyond that stage now.
The feds paying off student loan debt is just another of many examples of the government creating a problem and then the taxpayers having to bail the government out for the unintended consequences of their bad decisions.