If you let your educational institutions squeeze every last penny of your future well-educated doesn't that also limit your countries ability to innovate?
If my paycheck would go entirely towards rent and debt payments, I for sure would look for a high paying corporate job instead of startup or freelance work.
What are you talking about? For profit education is nearly dead - ITT, etc., Do you mean private schools?
You're correct that schools organized as for-profit business entities have a bad name and are dying back.
But even state schools and universities that are nonprofits on paper can conduct themselves in ways that are profit-driven in practice.
It's kind of like the Hollywood accounting practices where a movie that has brought in an enormous box-office haul is treated as only breaking even on paper. As long as the numbers line up right, you can be a "nonprofit" where salary and perks for top figures are exorbitant.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-re... (https://archive.ph/Ju3ro)