I am of the opinion that parents need to determine what they will contribute. The money can come from savings, current earnings or loans. The key is knowing how much you are willing to borrow. It sounds like these people did things backwards. They allowed their child to choose where she wanted to attend and then borrowed to cover it regardless the cost. They had no control over the debt. In our house we told our children what we would pay. Any loans we may have had to get were ours not theirs. They had to cover the balance of the costs through their own earnings, scholarships, grants or stafford loans. The cost of the university was a definite factor.
Just as it’s important not to give your child a blank check, parents also need to consider is that college is going to cost something. It does you little good to tell your child that you will contribute little or nothing. I agree that the government makes it too easy to ignore the reality of financing college, however, as someone else mentioned the parents should have been more financially wise in their decision making.