Just chiming in to say we haven't had a big education bill in years. I actually like the idea of forcing (at least public) colleges to better budget their money rather than pass on the extraneous cost to students in the form of long-term debt, which in my memory hasn't even been touched in this game.
I agree with this, this is the root of a great deal of the tuition inflation. Colleges have very little incentive to economize or budget when their are no limiting factors that make price increases (in this case tuition, but also fees) undesirable.
This is one factor but certainly not the greatest. I planned to do a huge education overhaul but circumstances made that a bit more difficult unfortunately. The predatory student loan industry is a major issue, as well as growing demand and stagnant supply.
