The entire world of profiting from education, and from predatory loans for education is locked into a desperate feedback loop that's killing us. Of course, the alternatives involve the kinds of "big government" that have been so ideologically loathsome to many from the 80's on.
Ironically back in the 80s it cost around $75/year for UC. I went to UC in 1990, say tuition go from $375/year to $20,000/year by 1995. The changes Bush and Clinton made in the 90s enabled this situation where schools on the one hand lost state subsidies and on the other hand you saw the radical financialization where it became the norm to suddenly be 22 years old and in 6 figures of debt.
Tuition at UTD skyrocketed when the Texas state legislature uncapped tuition in 2003. Before that, tuition at public universities was capped by state law, but afterwards, each university was allowed to set their own tuition. UTD became one of the most expensive public universities in the country starting in 2004.
What changes made by US Presidents could have such a drastic effect on part of California's government? Outside of funding of researchers, which I doubt went down much during Bush and Clinton, I thought the federal government had (and has) relatively minor influence over the University of California.
Yes, this tuition spike happened everywhere in the US due to the availability of student loans for everyone who had a pulse at effectively any asking price. All of the universities had absolutely no incentive to cap tuition increases because everyone could always pay.
"Big government" is responsible for the out of control costs. With government-guaranteed student loans, there is no requirement for the university or the bank to retain an reasonable cost profile.
The only loser if the student fails to repay their loan is the student him/herself, when it affects their credit negatively and they're unable to discharge it in bankruptcy.
Other than that, universities will get paid no matter what they charge, and banks will get the loan repaid whether you do it personally or not, so there's no reason for anyone to constrain costs to reality.
Outlaw student debt entirely and watch the system turn on its head. There's no reason it should be so expensive to learn how to be useful, especially with 12 years of state-funded primary schooling before university.
