The actual problem is high tuition.
"Omg, it costs $5000 to get a degree! That means only the rich have access to education and increase the gap between rich and poor! We need a solution!"
"You can't just go giving education for free! Communism!"
"We never said that! Let's lend up to $5000 to anyone without the mean to pay for education! That will level the playing field and in the long term we get back the money, it's win all around!"
<fast forward a few years>
"Omg, it costs $10,000 to get a degree! Poor people can get loans, but they have to repay them in addition to paying $5,000 out of pocket! That divides the rich and the poor, etc etc! We should load up to $10,000 to even out the playing field! win win!"
<fast forward to now after a few cycle>
"Omg, we have a student debt crisis!"
Like, did someone really not see it coming? Without some form of cost control, this is just government sponsored cost inflation. Because of where Im from Im just used to government paid education. It's not always as good, and there are a lot of friction, but costs are kept a little more under control. I guess you could also, in theory, just not have the loans at all, or much fewer, and if it had been that way from the beggining, cost wouldn't have gone up nearly as fast.
You are from Europe, right? And you have rigorious exams to sort out the folks who will get the government-paid education and who will not. And this is ok, since Europe is more or less homogenous. Hans goes to university and Peter and Mark and Bernard all go to work in mcdonalds instead. No outrage here, it was just a hard exam, and only Hans was able to pass.
Now guess what will happen in US if you don't provide free education for everyone, but require to pass a hard exam first. It's not that hard to imagine, really.
But yes, I've lived in the US long enough now to know that in the current political context, people's expectations of what the Government should provide are not realistic or in line with the reality the country is in.
I also strooooongly believe in everyone (who is part of the system through one of the many legitimate methods) having a right to equal opportunity, but not necessarily a right to equal outcome. That is also very, very difficult in the US because of its history as well as its current political climate, for both some good and some bad reasons.