If we are going to have a society worth caring about and living in then we have to have shared burdens. Sometimes I’ll help pay for something I’ll never use for the benefit of others. The go it alone mentality leads to a shitty society. It’s proper, right and just for society to provide universal higher education for qualified people. It’s beneficial to everyone that this be the case.

Besides, in the U.S. a great generational theft has occurred. The older folks benefitted from much higher public support for their higher education. Now they vote to defund higher education and this has led to penury for large numbers of recently graduated college students.

If it's proper, right, and just for society to provide higher education, is it also right and just for them to subsidize tuitions for expensive private schools rather than local state schools?

It depends on the society and how it is structured. Generally, no.

How do you reconcile that position with a belief that we should forgive student debt? Do you have an estimate as to how many of those dollars will have gone into the pockets of elite schools?