But I don't see this being a big part of current public discussion on education. So I doubt the idea would really get any traction without e.g. a candidate in a presidential election pushing for it.
Similar to Yang and Basic Income. Even though that idea is more far fetched/challenging to implement, he was able to give it a lot of public mindshare. I believe if somebody did the same for streamlining college education to make it more economical to students it would be a broadly popular position. That lights the match for the grassroots movement to kick off and grow.
It's only useful to talk about interest rates in the 80's in the context of fighting inflation. In other cases, it's a cherry-picked number.
So when people talk about how easy it was for the last generation to buy a house or pay for college, part of that was due to higher rates suppressing prices.
The lower rates go, the higher prices go, and the ability to live a debt free life becomes diminished. Some say it's ok because the lower rates offset the increase in price.
In the 80s interest rates on long term treasuries were around 10%, so I imagine student loans were much higher. Very expensive to finance high dollar amounts with those kind of rates. Most of the gains in housing have been due to rates trending lower for decades, for example.
But I'd advocate a more radical change towards shorter term vocational focused programs (e.g. coding bootcamps) to college.
Many benefits to that, but shorter also means easier to switch professions if you feel you've made a mistake. Due to duration and financial commitment, college is hard to swallow twice through.
Really just need somebody in a position of power to advocate for this kind of radical change in education, to shift public perception and culture.