This article only addresses public schools. States have had to reduce funding to those schools because of rising healthcare and entitlement costs, along with lack of public will to spend more on them. We all can see there is a giant marketing machine at these universities and private schools which have convinced many students and parents that the only way to a successful life is to enter into a long-term debt commitment. The article you link to was written by one of these marketers. It is nearly impossible to be denied one of these parent-student loans. And these loans can never be dismissed by bankruptcy, unlike other loans (I am not advocating not paying your debts, but use this as a further illustration of the way education and government have conspired to create this situation).