re: #226 Belafon
When I graduated from UT Dallas in 2005, the president told that the state paid $12 for every dollar paid by students when he graduated in the late 70s. By my time is was down to something like less than 20c.
And there is a reason for this.
It used to be only a small fraction of society went to college. So a state could fund this bit of extra education for its 5% of young people or so.
But if you want 50% or more (some want all) of young people to go to college for 4 years, then that is a burden much much larger than 5%-10% of said young population.