Last year about 7.5 million people attended public 4 year institutions and about the same number attended public two year institutions. Around 5 million attended private institutions. Over the last 25 years there has a been a steady decline in the public funding of public higher education on a per student basis.
Higher education is a large market and there are many, many forces at play. Blaming a single item is too simplistic an analysis.
The number of students is irrelevant. The government will secure your student loans and the only way you can get rid of them is to die. When a school can basically decide how much money they want, wave a magic wand and the money arrives in their bank account, it's going to skyrocket exactly like it has.
The number of students at public institutions vs. private institutions does matter. You do not know much about how higher education works. Public institutions generally can't just raise tuition as they see fit. They usually need the approval of state governments. Tuition has gone up at public institutions as state funding has gone down.
Higher education is a large market and there are many, many forces at play. Blaming a single item is too simplistic an analysis.
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_303.70.a...