If we were we scrapping our current system and starting from scratch, Washington could make public college tuition free with the money it sets aside its scattershot attempts to make college affordable today.
this is of course a flawed assumption. why would you set up college as screwed-up again if you had a chance for a do-over? why would you lump in housing, expensive facilities etc that add 0 to education outcomes? an ideal college system would have 90% fewer assets and costs.