Again, cart before horse. I spent 2000-2005 designing fancy-pants rec centers for universities because they were competing in a market of "who's got the bitchinest dorms" not "whose degree program has the best earning potential and connections." My wife's alma mater is in a real crisis because they can't get anyone to sign up for their ridiculous tuition. Where did they open their branch campus? Torrey Pines, some of the most expensive real estate in the United States. Their expansion plans for the past fifteen years have been directly related to "what can we do to attract more conferences" not "what can we do to attract more students."

But hey - let's look at income-based pricing.

Average liberal arts starting salary: $42k

Average liberal arts cost: $58k

Average liberal arts student loan, no IBR: $614/mo, $74k

Average liberal arts student loan, IBR: $350/mo, $42k

Actual cost to the government: $0

Average CS starting salary: $76k

Average CS cost: $52k

Average CS student loan, no IBR: $551/mo, $66k

Average CS loan, IBR: $633/mo. The loan already costs less than the IBR cap.

Here's what this nothingburger really says: income-based repayment means 3rd party payments processors can't profit on underperforming student loans, they can only service them.

How is that not an undiluted net good? I mean yeah - allow me to nod in the general direction of your AEI fever dream up there and say "cool story bro" but the whole point of college fucking loans is they increase the earning potential of your citizens thereby increasing your tax base. Skilled labor is more profitable than unskilled labor. Here's a video of Israeli robots picking apples.

College is a clusterfuck and a scam, and the only way to maintain any edge in the world economy is to have more college grads. If the Biden administration can best execute a quick fix to the problem by leveraging Republican 9/11 bullshit good on 'em. Anyone who doesn't see that has failed macroeconomics.