Higher education is not a public service. K-12 is.
If you want to invest in yoursef by obtaining a higher education, feel free to do so, that is your right. You then have a duty to do something with that education and pay back your loans, or apply yourself while in school and work to pay as you go. The last thing that should happen is for the goverment to pay for anyone that wants to obtain a higher education for free. The college would then have no real check on the quality of education that students recive, as the institution knows they will recive thier funding so long as students show up, and pass the (most likely) goverment mandated tests (sounds like K-12, train to take a test)
The GI bill - Its a contract. Just like buying a hose. You decide you want to go with a different house, so you can just stop making payments on the one you just bought? I don't think so.
Honerable Dicharge - Really not that difficult. Show up, do your job, lay off the pot for a few years, get the pay and benefits promised my your employer. Seems simple to me.
17K debt? I see students on the OSU campus diving cars that cost more than that. Heres a thought, live within your means while in college. If a 17K loan paid back over 15 years is killing your budget, get a second job. That shiny new degree is only worth what you use it for, if you cant do some evening work at McD's to cover that payment while you enter the professional world, maybe you deserve to fail.
Before you say I dont know what it is like, I have attended college. I served my time in the military for that benefit. My wife has student loans well above that average amount, we are paying them back just fine.