The truly free market is great for many things, but demand for college is very inelastic, and a truly free market requires no barriers to entry - this is not the case at all in either education (certification/regulation) or healthcare (regulation/approval/patents).

If nothing but the free market can work, how do tax-funded government services for healthcare and education work just fine across much of the world? There are 10+ other countries with socialized healthcare and free or subsidized education. The "free market" argument is equivalent to closing your eyes and pretending these counterexamples don't exist at all.