In some cases it may be taxes, but in many cases - especially with private schools, you are getting financial aid due to the generosity of of past graduates or others with a connection to the university. If it were not for those people, very few in the middle class could afford schools like Vandy, johns Hopkins, rice, emory, wash u of st. Louis, the IVY schools, the claremont system, etc., etc.
IMHO, take that money with gratitude and then when your career allows, donate, donate, and donate so that other middle class kids can receive that same quality education.
You can look at your education as a capital investment - which means you can pay for it over time (through some loans or giving back in the future) (like an income producing asset) or you can look at it as a simple expense which should be paid for as you incur the expense. But, with the insane cost of private schools, and the budget cuts (and rapid increase in public university fees) impacting public schools, educating yourself on the intracacies of available financial aid is a must.
There is a big difference between saddling a college graduate with too much debt and taking advantage of financial aid (grants) which you can mark down as a moral debt to be gtiven back in the future. It is not a weakness or moral failure to invest in your future.