The easy money of student loans is a federal program, not the state governments. And conservatives like it because then the big financial corporations that make student loans can make lots of money. And the more expensive education is, the more money they can make. So yes, conservatives think it is just great when higher education gets more expensive.
The opposed the old universities because they believed they were marxist. They like it that the new universities have become more expensive because that keeps people out of universities, or when they are in they enroll in business-oriented programs rather than the humanities, which are rather anti-business. They like it that universities have abandoned education in favor of entrepreneurship. And they like the student loan program because it helps universities be like businesses, and makes lots of money for financial corporations. Do you really disagree this is what conservatives think and feel?