So many issues in this one.
The first thing that comes to mind is a free college education with a liberal arts degree for all. Well that would be a bit much to start out with I suppose. How about we begin by giving that only to people in Red States? Which would probably turn them all blue in 4 years.
Much of this debt is about 18 year old middle class kids getting loans to go to college to drink beer, have sex and do drugs then drop out with no income to pay off the loans. It is also very much about predatory private colleges selling loans to working class kids who never finish and are left with life long debt.
Even a degree in English Lit or Illustration is good on a resume. Many employers want to hire educated people for all sort of mundane things so they know they will at least know to wipe their butts well and not drool during presentations.
Then there is the universal problem that we are sending these kids to college well before they are mature, worldly and sensible enough to find some direction in their lives. Two years of mandatory government service as is required by many nations and Mormons is a good idea. I suggest every American 18 year old spend 2 years digging wells in The Sudan.