Forget subsidies and student loans. Get rid of college degrees that are not worth anything. A womyn’s or black studies degree is useless except to get someone in the door for an interview which says, “degree required.”
Once you get rid of those types of degrees, you will also get rid of the administrative costs. Schools now have upwards of 100 degree programs. You need the same faculty to support Engineering as you do French Literature.
That’s why the cost of education went up.
French Literature (pre-Camus and Derrida) is one of the few reasons baccalaureate programs should exist.