Universities are doing price discrimination. They want to charge rich kids a lot, middle class kids something, and poor kids nothing. That requires a high sticker price for the tuition, plus discounts.
It's hardly a perfect system but the basic idea is not unreasonable. And remember, if one pumps money into the system from the government side (which, IMHO, should happen) the counterintuitive result is that rich kids are likely to be the first ones to benefit.
It's hardly a perfect system but the basic idea is not unreasonable. And remember, if one pumps money into the system from the government side (which, IMHO, should happen) the counterintuitive result is that rich kids are likely to be the first ones to benefit.