I still believe if you borrow money, you pay it back. I don't care if it's for basket weaving or engineering.
There's a reasonable and unreasonable way to go about things.
I don't think it's an unreasonable opinion to think college should be free in the United States.
But the way to do that isn't to wave a magic wand and say all student loans should disappear because the federal money doesn't count.
You come up with a process, and implement it going forward. Make public community colleges free period with bachelor/advanced degrees free under certain parameters.
Involve GPA/grade requirements, make it applicable only to public schools, have certain requirements for residence/citizenship etc. Whatever the rules are is freaking irrelevant for this argument, you make rules, make a process, budget and implement it going forward.