Economics 101: lower price leads to higher demand. When in-state tuition drops to zero, we are going to see more college graduates. Is it really a good thing? I do not know.
"The New York Fed, in a blog post authored by researchers Jaison Abel and Richard Deitz, examined the plight of those who graduated between 2009 and 2013. The study found that some 45% of college grads worked in a “non-college job,” which is defined as a position in which fewer than 50% of the workers in that job need a bachelor’s degree.
The low-skilled jobs — including baristas, bartenders, and cashiers — accounted for 19.3% of underemployed recent college graduates, paying $23,584 on average."
Will zero in-state tuition entice many (arguably academically weaker) HS students who would initially go directly into (say blue-collar) labor market eventually get a college degree and then become underemployed in the white-collar job market and unhappy about “4 years of waste of their life?”
This possible distortion is likely deflate the pay for those less-desirable white-collar jobs and inflate the pay for blue-collar jobs performed by high school graduates. If so, you bet there would be a lot of unhappiness.
Actually, the over-supply problems of college graduates (relative to high school graduates) are very troublesome social issues in China, Taiwan, and some other Asian countries. In those countries, a janitor often makes more money than a college graduate.