An unfortunate consequence of the Government's reducing/eliminating funds and cancelling student loans (good for the debtors) is that the value of college education is devalued and spikes inflation (bad for everyone).The parents had 20 years to save for college. Could have slowly put away some cash for the kid and invested in to earn the 6.87% and make college a whole lot cheaper.
The reason the cost of college is so high is because the Federal government reduced/eliminated a lot of funding to universities starting in the 80's. The onus was then on the states. We can see how that genius idea worked out.
This is one of the other factors driving my interest in the need to separate bad assumptions and take a closer/careful look at the cost of college.