Stanford: An elite school that nobody can afford to attend has suddenly done the right thing, and then some.

Stanford University is jumping into the competitive world of deep discounting.

Tapping into its burgeoning endowment to make college more affordable, Stanford announced Wednesday that beginning next year it will offer free tuition - worth $36,000 a year - to middle-class students whose parents make less than $100,000 a year.

Joining a trend started by other elite universities such as Harvard, Princeton and Yale, Stanford is also eliminating student loans.

The move will make Stanford a better value than the University of California-Berkeley and San Jose State University for many students.

The best thing about this may be the elimination of the usurious student loans that put students into hock for ten years, if they can pay them back at all. These government guaranteed loans also guarantee that banks will loan to anyone and everyone without bothering to check credit worthiness (heard that before?). Default? Who gives a fat fuck? The government will pay the loan back to the banks and take over collection efforts. Several years ago I was having lunch with a newly solvent forty something guy who told me that he was still paying for that lunch he ate at the student union fifteen years before and now the Feds would move in on him and grab his wages if he didn't set up a repayment plan immediately. For many, a student loan is an anvil hanging from their necks for decades. Stanford also will pay room and board, a major sum in high rent Palo Alto. They also understand that books can run 10K per year and for people earning less than 50K they will pay for them also. Next? Look for football and basketball scholarship students to sue for equal scholarship treatment.

The Stanford fight song begins: "Come join the band...." Now everybody everywhere can. Could other snooty elites follow? You can bet the monstrously endowed Ivies, who now offer lots of help, will follow suit in embarrassment if for no other reason. This could be, could be, a shot fired across the bow of every college in the land. If so, it's about time. Let's hear it for Stanford......