I am not at all against the system of loans, but there are reasons I hate education loans. Let's break these reasons down. Talking in terms of values, education loan should help people gain knowledge based on which they can get jobs to pay off the loan. Knowledge is gained not just with the classes but with the life the student has around the school. But due to the constraints and burden of the loan, most of the students stop having a life outside or around schools.
This ensures student to have a good record on the transcript (as their weekends = libraries), but this also stops the growth of a person beyond their school. But assuming this still helps a student get a good job, the student has always lived in the pressure to finish the degree not for learning, but for the tuition fees. Leaving him/her no time/chance of reflection.
In terms of economy and claims that tutions fee help schools survive, as Noam Chomsky breaks it down very beautifully here, the education loans have originated due to a simple reason of efficiency of schools - and profits in hands of few. The tuition fees were low in past even in USA or Netherlands and are low/ negligible in countries like Switzerland, Germany, and Finland with great education system intact. So, it is completely not a case that without tuition fees a student cannot get the quality education. So fundamentally this system is meant for filling pockets of few, and creating vicious cycles of debt for those who have taken loans.
It saddens me looking at countries like the Netherlands has had so great education system and now they are increasing their tuition fee every year and being just one of the many rats in the race. These places have forgotten the meaning of university as Chomsky puts it "Universities ought to be the place where as many people as possible...have the opportunity to develop their creative capacities, their independence, their joy of discovery, their ability to work with each other to achieve desirable social ends that they can figure out. When students are in a university they are really at the freest time of their lives. They are out of parental control. They don’t yet have to devote themselves to putting bread on the table. A lot of freedom and opportunity — and that’s the point of a university. "
What is the solution? Maybe better state funds, easier loans, better stipends for students. At least there needs to be a discussion or a debate by students and equally professors to show a willingness to change this system.