A combination of government-guaranteed debt and the belief that everyone needs a college degree and its value will always increase (hmmm....what does that remind me of?) influenced them all to keep increasing tuition, to the point where people (for a while anyway) believed it made sense to pay $200k for a degree from a small, nondescript liberal arts college (just as people once believed it made sense to pay $400k for a starter home 40 miles outside of Phoenix).

The big state schools will be fine for now, but even then, over the next 20-30 years, I think the lesser ones will see massive competition from online outlets.