What if we just like... paid for school with taxes like literally every other country? (Trust me, it shouldn’t cost as much as it does to get a degree. I promise it can be and, in fact, used to be affordable.)
We need a mechanism to control costs. The loans are just one side of the story. The majority of public universities are rapidly increasing their cost structures.
In many ways taxes do pay for it. For example around 50% of state school tuition is paid for by taxes. Yet sky-high, emphatically unpayable debt persists and is getting worse.
That doesn't work longterm.