This shows why if the government does some amount of student debt forgiveness, it must be coupled with tuition price controls of some sort. It's not plausible that student debt forgiveness will be a one-time affair. And if the government forgives, say, $10,000 per year of student debt, tuitions will quickly rise by an additional $10,000 per year, and the student debt level will be unchanged. The incentives in the higher education market are already a mess, and throwing in debt forgiveness with no cost controls will make it even crazier.