Taxpayers already seem reasonably happy with giving tax breaks to college students. If they get some work out of the bargain too, so much the better.

Personally I suspect that the government showering money onto the higher education industry is a major factor in causing tuition to rise, but this doesn't seem to be a widely discussed issue in the public sphere so the chances of getting it fixed soon seem slim.

Students do have to work for aid. It's called work-study. This just means that instead of useful jobs at the college where the student may gain experience, they'll be doing stupid Community Service type stuff (like the courts force criminals to do instead of jail time).

There is aid separate from work-study. Specifically (and this is just the federal stuff; states have education aid programs too): Pell grants, Stafford loans (some are subsidized, and even the unsubsidized ones charge below-market interest), PLUS loans, Hope credit, Lifelong Learning credit, tuition and fees deduction, Education Savings Bond program, the ability for parents to claim full time students age 19-24 as dependents...