Right, so broadly the solution you're proposing is subsidies. University will be cheaper from the perspective of the student but we don't actually undergo any meaningful cost cutting it's just the money comes from somewhere else. I don't know about you but I don't think this actually solves the problem of the cost of university ballooning out of control and becoming unaffordable to almost every American if they had to pay for it with what was in their bank account.
I mean it can work so long as the government can bully the university into keeping a lid on the per student costs but large public universities have massive amounts of political capital to sell the cost increases to the government.
Forgive me, are you not proposing to roll these subsidies out everywhere? Because yeah, someone can afford their tuition on minimum wage if they get a full ride scholarship too but that's hardly a solution to the student loan crisis unless we're handing them out to all our undergrads.
That can still be easily done.
In California, most families earning under $100k get their tuition costs to UCs covered. CSUs are probably even easier.
Then, PhDs largely get paid for by undergrad tuition and research grants, it's pretty unusual for PhDs to pay their own way.