Median income for families, however, has not kept pace, increasing just 12 percent over the same period.
Student loans help families fill the cash gap.
And a powerful industry has grown up to handle the loan business. Taxpayers subsidize the private student loan industry through federal guarantees of loans and other financial perks to encourage banks to loan students money. But banks grumble about the fact that the government dictates the terms of these loans. In July 1998, when Congress debated the student loan program as part of a package of higher-education legislation, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa made a modest proposal. The Senate rejected Harkin's amendment by a vote of 56 to 41.