As The Washington Post noted, “Roughly 70 percent of students borrow to pay for college and graduate with an average debt of $29,000.” Those figures, along with the concept of higher education as a right, have motivated students to protest and demand a solution to increasing student debt and high tuition fees.

Images of the protests from USA Today show the energy and excitement behind the marches. Without a doubt, students with high levels of debt would be better off without that burden. The anger and energy, however, lacks much in the way of solutions to curbing costs.

Adjusted for inflation, tuition and fees at public four-year colleges have increased 394 percent since 1976, according to the College Board. Students aren’t necessarily paying the “sticker price” thanks to scholarships, grants, and other financial aid, but net tuition and fees have steadily increased, and even more so if room and board is factored into prices.

Federal and state largess has done little to restrain tuition and fees. While federal and state funding has different goals, public colleges and universities fund a larger percentage of their budgets from government sources (37 percent) than from tuition and fees (21 percent), according to research from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The federal government also funds tuition and fee payments through its student loan program. In fact, by volume, “federal loans grew 376 percent between 1990 and 2013 in real terms, compared with enrollment growth of 60 percent,” and $103 billion in loans were issued in 2013, according to Pew.

The hefty government involvement, rather than helping students, has remained one of the reasons that college costs keep rising. Growing demand for college attendance, and a government willing to lend money to any prospective student, has let universities raise costs without a drop in enrollment as students hold more debt.

Government action has created the problem, and the victims demand government action to solve it.

Demands to make college free and forgive student debt do nothing to address underlying pressures in higher education that drives the price. It shifts the costs from students to taxpayers, further weakening price sensitivity that would drive consumers to find a more affordable option in earning a college degree. A $ 15 hourly minimum wage for student workers would increase costs, especially for colleges in areas with a low cost of living.

Yet the college premium remains. On average, college graduates earn more than non-graduates, though that can differ on a personal level. If a student takes out $80,000 in loans for a degree that isn’t valued by the labor market, the premium could become negative.

For a long-lasting reform of higher education, protestors would do better in demanding reforms that attack costs, not who pays the costs. Otherwise, they’ll be responsible in the future for the next generation of students demanding relief.