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And lost in all this are the numerous college students who are not going into debt, or who are working their own way through school. If more students worked, it would significantly reduce the amount of debt they have. I know had I not worked 2 jobs through graduate school I would have owed far more money than I did when I graduated.

I think the plan I related in a previous thread would work quite well in reducing student loan debt:

Basically... you make students pay a fraction of the actual payment while they are in school. This fraction could be small, say, 10% or 20% of the post-school loan payment. These payments would go directly towards principal and the dollar amount would increase as the student borrows more.
Such a regime would serve to remind students that loans are not free money and that a student loan payment, if not low enough, can seriously impede someone's progress in life. It might even entice some students to reevaluate the worth of their degrees and possibly go directly to the workforce instead, or it might entice them to work during school to cover some of the expenses.

I know had I not worked 2 jobs through graduate school I would have owed far more money than I did when I graduated.

How in the world did you work two jobs while in grad school? When I was in grad school (1997-2000), we generally had to read two or three books, a couple of academic articles, and write two or three substantial papers per week. There was no time even for sleep...!

Here’s another set of considerations:

Student pays $8K for classes per semester and takes 5 classes. That’s about $1,600 per class. In undergraduate classes you can have up to 100 kids in a class for 100/200 level classes. 100 kids x $1,600 = $160,000 for calculus, english or american history 101 class? Prof teaches maybe 2 of these for a cost of salary and benefits of $40K per semester. Teaching Assts. do the grading and handle the break out classes. Looks like BS to me.

The housing is another boondoggle. They charge kids $2K per semester to live in a 15 x 15 dorm room with a roommate. That’s $8K per year for 225 feet of space and not including anything that they do in the summer sessions. A 3 bedroom apartment with 1,000 sq. feet off campus is $1,200 when you factor in utilities.