>Bill, we're both old school (ok, i'm a tad younger-old-school, haha). We know there's no such thing as a free lunch.

For sure

I, along with millions of other GI's, went through school on the GI Bill.
That was hardly a freebie, especially for the WWII GI's.

Way back when, CCNY was free, provided you could meet academic entrance standards. (Colin Powell and some friends of mine took advantage of it.)
Then along came open admissions and the dropout rate - and associated costs - soared.

I'm for forgiving loans for kids of low means, who succeed

However, the government should not be backing loans to schools who admit students who fail.
Those schools, not the kids, should be eating those costs.