Biden Forgave Billions in Student Debt. Poll Shows It's Not Enough For Gen Z

[MichMan]

60. State supported colleges are nothing like public K-12 schools

Unlike K-12 public schools, the government does not own the colleges, the buildings, nor are the employees employed by the government.

In nearly all cases, state sponsored colleges are free to set their own tuition rates at whatever they choose, and those tuition costs can vary wildly from one school to another. For example, in my state, within close geographic vicinity are Washtenaw Community College, Eastern Michigan, and the University of Michigan. Washtenaw charges $169 per credit hour in tuition and fees, Eastern charges $600, and Univ of Michigan charges $700 per credit hour (in state) (and $2350 out of state !) All are public

If as a country, we decide college is "free", should students be given the choice to attend the college of their dreams regardless of cost?

Should a student from Illinois for example, who decides Univ. of Michigan is where they want to go, be able to attend there, with the taxpayers picking up $58k per year in costs ? If so, what is stopping Eastern from raising theirs to a similar amount ? For that matter, is there anything stopping Michigan from raising theirs to $75k? Students won't care because they aren't responsible for paying it. I don't see how we can have free college if the colleges are free to set their own prices.

Alternatively, we could always say that anyone getting free tuition had to attend "approved" colleges in their own state, or provide a stipend of let's say $15k per year, with the student having to make up the difference. Of course, in that scenario, the colleges could just jack up the tuition anyway to make up the difference. Or we could state that participating colleges would only be allowed to charge the same base amount, and the higher cost ones will have to figure how to slash costs in order to get there.

Regarding private colleges not being eligible, seems fine at face value for Ivy league colleges like Harvard or Yale, but that also means many well known HBCU like Howard, Morehouse, Spelman, Selma, & Tuskegee would also not be eligible. I doubt they would be able to survive charging tuition if everywhere else is free.

Everyone would like to see college more affordable, but how to get there isn't easy.