I agree with the thrust of your argument but my flagship state university is still affordable for anyone. It's not cheap, but in state tuition even if you pay sticker isn't so high you can't pay it off in a reasonable amount of time (in state tuition is ~$9k). It's a great university too (UNC) so part of the way they keep tuition for in state cheap is out of state students pay almost as much as private school tuition and there's a ton of OOS willing to pay it.

Schools bear a lot of responsibility but then we can't ignore the role state governments have played by drastically slashing funding over the past 10+ years. Probably only going to get cut further in the COVID environment.

Purdue University hasn't raised tuition in something like 5+ years and is also still affordable. It's not Ivy league by any means but it's a great school. You need government and administrators/boards willing to support this though, 99% won't

Something external needs to happen to stop rapid rise in tuition. Maybe it will be COVID. Maybe state governments will reign in the profligate spending of their universities. They aren't going to do it themselves (at least top Universities, schools at the bottom of the food chain could definitely go bankrupt.)

As a non-American I've never really understood this "oh, in state is still cheap" argument. Does every state have a top university? What if your state doesn't have a good university for what you want to study? UNC sounds nice for people lucky enough to have been born in NC but why should out of state people pay more? Or do people move to a state specifically for the universities?

Education is considered a state responsibility, not federal. Every state generally has a "flagship" university. And they usually have the important stuff covered, such as professional schools, so that their state's population has these needed skills.

If you are a smart enough student that you would gain admission to one of the highly-ranked flagship universities of another state, you are going to win scholarships to private schools too. The lower the rankings you are willing to go, the better scholarships you can get.

You can relocate to get in-state benefits but it may take awhile as states put conditions (e.g. living there for a year first, having a a job, etc) specifically to prevent people doing this.

States pay for higher education systems as a part of their budget.

From https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article239..., $800 million from North Carolina tax payers to universities it sounds like.

Meanwhile, Germany is re-introducing fees for non EU residents: https://www.studying-in-germany.org/germany-will-reintroduce....

> Meanwhile, Germany is re-introducing fees for non EU residents:

€1500 per semester. Nothing compared to zzz USA or even UK fees.

That's how the UK fees started under Blair. Then Cameron came in, the principle of free education had already been abandoned, so all he had to do was tweak the price.

Remember that many US states are the size of European countries. This is the same deal that many countries in Europe have: subsidized tuition for residents.

Also, a lot of state systems have good schools: UC Berkeley, UMass Amherst, UIUC, UT Austin, and UW Madison come to mind.

In-state tuition for public schools has been rising to unjustifiable levels, too, just not at the rate of private schools.

I have relatives that were able to pay for their tuition with part-time jobs in college. Today, I'd have to take out a small mortgage just for a liberal arts degree.