This 100%. I actually really do not want to see this happen without regulating the industry. Cancelling student debt is a good move, but it's just going to make the problem worse in the long run because universities pricing structure is "whatever we can get away with".

I would rather they work with "good" universities (i.e. not the diploma mills) and say "we'll give you $x per enrolled student but you're not allowed to charge them tuition or fees or force them into overpriced dorms", work out some regulations to make sure academic standards are maintained (so universities don't over-enroll in fluff courses). And then include loan forgiveness on existing loans as part of that.

But also, despite actually teaching at a university, I don't think this is really the right way to improve the country: we really don't need more college education. It's way oversold, and isn't remotely as important as people pretend. Yes it's important to have an educated workforce, but the weak link in education is currently the quality of K-12 education not college availability or affordability. This is doubly true for the segments of the population that would have the most to gain from education in terms of socioeconomic standing -- school districts in poor areas are seriously underfunded, teachers across the country are generally not valued or respected and sometimes barely paid a living wage for the amount of shit they have to put up with. I would much rather see money going towards fixing that first, because that's going to have way more of a long-term economic impact. Bump up the average salary for K-12 to something around 80-100k/year (because yes, it's really that important) and you'll make college mostly obsolete.