 There is substantial empirical evidence showing that cheap federal loans are actually a major cause of the rise in college tuition, which has outpaced the growing cost of even medical care and housing. This theory was famously argued in a 1987 New York Times op-ed by then-Secretary of Education William Bennett, who wrote that, increases in financial aid in recent years have enabled colleges and universities blithely to raise their tuition, confident that federal loan subsidies would help cushion the increase. When you give people more money to pay for something, prices tend to go up, and forgiving debt makes the problem worse. Students don't care as much if college administrators overcharge for their services because they'll probably never have to pay it back anyway.