OK- schools cost 100K because the last thirty years has been a veritable Arms Race of amenities, enhanced learning supports, investments in non-academic facilities and snack bars, significantly better food, fancier dorms, etc.
The schools that have kept a lid on expenses are regularly described as “dumpy”. We have parents who post on CC that they’ve come back from a college which doesn’t even have AC in the dorms! In Maine! Where the kid will be at college for 4-6 AC days per year– but the entire university needs to immediately upgrade!
Not every college costs 100K. You know that, right? City College of NY which educates 15,000 students per year costs aprox. 15K per year. Most students commute so the cost of room and board is mostly lunch on campus. The entire CUNY system has 26 colleges, about 240,000 students (almost a quarter of a million students).
So the focus on “why does every college cost 100K per year” seems to me to be perpetuating the equity/income issue you don’t want to focus on. There are lots and lots of students in the US who can’t afford 100K (whether they are upper income, middle income, or low income) and have found other ways to get an education.
Stanford and Princeton cost 100K per year. Their campuses are gorgeous and the amenities are incredible.