As someone who attended a regionally well regarded Private Liberal Arts school in the early 2000's, I'll contribute a few observations. All the theater majors I knew all do pretty well for themselves excepting the ones with crippling substance abuse problems, with all them making a living with their technical skills, not acting. E.g one runs lights for major tours, another coordinates production things at Disney etc, another builds specialty props for movies and whatnot, but the degree gave them networking and experience.
Secondly while my school was expensive for the Midwest on paper, the merit scholarships made it the same as going to the instate flagship. I went that way because I could easily double major in Poli Sci, and Religious studies with a double minor in history and philosophy and be done in 4 years while doing a bunch of other stuff, and it was a wet campus. The bulk of my student debt was taking a year of law school to figure out I sure as fuck didn't want to be a lawyer. I pivoted to getting a Master's in Ag Econ that was fully funded, and a commodity broker/cattle producer. Now the same school charges a significant premium to the flagship, even with significant merit aid, and they have added a bunch of sports and other activities along with administrators that cost a lot more than just letting students entertain themselves by being a wet campus and having the basic extra-curriculars. Both ways the less achieving kids from better off families pay most of the freight.
In my experience, the real student loan train wrecks come from the people that pursued graduate degrees that weren't funded and didn't finish. While trades are important, and can certainly provide a great living, we also undersell that many of them are hard as hell on your body, and that much of the upside is in running your own business in the said trade, which is distinctly not for everybody in skill, temperament, risk, and hours.
In conclusion, if the government and society is happy to soak up risk for many big business and set them up for easy success, maybe doing the same for citizens as they come of age might yield dividends as well.