Asklemmy

Your also skipping the dual function of universities as research institutions.

What you're describing is a community college. Which are fine, and do a great job. But they don't excel at giving deep specialized knowledge, or advancing the frontiers of human knowledge.
They're just not equipped with the staff or materials.

Reworking the foundation of how we do advanced education and research in our society seems quite a bit more work than making a program where the taxpayers just pay for qualifying people to get as much education as they want.

You're talking about changes that will take a generation or more to settle. While these things are in flux, professors will lose their jobs, research grants and budgets will be gutted, and educational assets will be liquidized (imagine museums being sold off to private collections - this is incredibly damaging to the collective knowledge base). Meanwhile, the generations that wait for prices to come down will be left having to educate themselves on the internet, which not everyone has the motivational drive to do or the ability to spot which sources are providing reliable, accurate material they can learn from.

I get that something's gotta give, but banning loans altogether ain't it unless your entire goal is to turn Gen A's moniker into Ass-Backwards.

Not all degrees can be done in a classroom with a projector

Context.

I am a non traditional student, who has spent a significant amount of time working between highschool and college. The degree is about $18k/year for tuition. My STEM degree has a track record of 100% job placement, in your degree field, within one year of graduation. and, with a BS, average starting salary is approaching $80k.

With average rent and stuff, lets call it about $25k/year for the degree. Maybe $30k.

Is there stuff that the university is spending money on that they shouldn't? Yes. But, we also have many millions of dollars in equipment, some for undergrad, and some for graduated program use. All that equipment/lab spaces takes up space, and that equipment, our professors, and the reputation of our graduates are what makes the companies want to hire from pur school. We're not even that big of a school, but we have a large reputation for academics.

If you started cutting funding and forcing downsizing, you're losing decades of experience im teaching, many hundreds of millions in labs and equipment, and reducing the quality of the education that can be offered.

Now, I will grant you that some schools are too expensive, or degrees aren't worth the cost. And yes, changes in student loan structures are needed, but blanket statements, like that loans should be made illegal, is painting the issue with too broad of a brush stroke. What about making student loans able to be discharged in bankruptcy, and not being federally guaranteed? That could create an environment where loan companies are denying loans based on the cost vs income potential of the degree. Even with that though, we want to be very careful that it is structured in a way that is not going to disenfranchise low income students or minorities. Some degrees will either disappear, or get a lot cheaper. If you can't get a loan for a $400k underwater basket weaving degree, then it will either go away, or get cheaper.

A lot of programs need space and equipment to effectively produce a good product. You don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water.

The quality of education would go down.