Things have changed though. The price of getting a college education has gone through the roof, climbing much faster than the rate of inflation. While the consumer price index (inflation) has grown about 100% since 1980, the cost of college has grown more than 5 times as fast (almost 600%). There are a couple of reasons for that. First, the expenses of running a college has risen (salaries, construction, supplies, etc.). Second, the amount of money the states provide for their institutions of higher learning has been cut substantially. When those factors are combined, it makes the cost of a college education much higher for students (and still rapidly ballooning).
And the student loans have also changed. When I was in college, I got a loan through the National Defense Loan Program. These loans had a very low interest rate -- and if a student went into the military, became a teacher, or opted for a career in science, they didn't even have to pay the loan back. Back then, the government recognized that education was cost-effective and helped the nation in general. And even if a student opted not to have a service occupation, they would pay far more in additional taxes than giving them a loan would cost. It was a win-win situation for both the government and the students.
But now our government officials seem to think that government must be run like a business -- for short-term profit rather than the long-term good of the country. They think the government should be making a nice profit on providing loans for students to go to college (completely ignoring the benefit to the country of these students getting more education).
This is especially true of the Republicans in Congress. At best, they are content to allow interest rates to double on student loans (from 3.4% to 6.8%), and if they get their way they would make those interest rates even higher (between 8.5% and 10.5%). This would make the already large loans students must take out to get an education much harder to pay off -- and keep them in debt much longer (and put more students into default when they cannot handle the larger payments due to the exorbitant interest rates).
This is just making the current bad situation (where college is being priced out of reach for poor, working class, and lower middle class students) a lot worse. It's piling extra debt on students who already must assume too much debt, and that is simply ridiculous. It shouldn't take a person most of his/her working life to pay back a loan to go to college.
College should be affordable to anyone who is serious about getting a higher education, regardless of their family income. If we were smart, we would make a college education free for those who qualify for entrance and keep their grades up. And if we're not going to do that, we should at least provide those students with loans that have a very low interest rate (or no interest rate at all). That would be cost-effective, and would benefit the country in many ways.
We already provide a free public school education through high school (because we know it benefits our society in many ways). Why don't we do the same for college? The benefits are no less -- both for the students and the country.