This would save young Americans from going into crippling debt, but it would also make a university degree completely unaffordable for most. However, in the age of the Internet, that doesn't mean they couldn't get an education.
Consider the long term impact of this. There are a lot of different ways such a situation could go, for better and for worse.
And yet as a Canadian I know a lot of people who did not persue higher education because it's too expensive to do so. Only the rich can afford a "good" education.