It started as a way to give low income kids access to the same education opportunities as everyone else. Banks didn’t want to risk giving out loans to low incom

It started as a way to give low income kids access to the same education opportunities as everyone else. Banks didn’t want to risk giving out loans to low income borrowers so the govt guaranteed the loans. Once this happened everyone started taking out loans to go to college since the banks now approved anyone since the repayment was guaranteed by the govt, and since schools now had so many more applicants they kept raising prices (supply and demand). Higher prices lead to more loans which lead to higher prices, etc.