The trouble is that even people with STEM degrees these days are often struggling to get good paying jobs, even as their debt keeps racking up. And anything that's going to require a graduate degree, like teaching in the public school system, is going to require way more in debt than that just due to how much more graduate school usually costs, to the point where if a graduate degree is necessary to get into your chosen field, then you end up in debt either way. At which point, all else being equal, you're still better off in a country with free college, because then your debt isn't of the high-interest, non-dischargeable variety that it is here.

Note 1: there are other countries outside the EU that offer free college, like Panama, or cheap, like Mexico. See the map azimir posted.

Note 2: earlier, you said that going into debt was both easier and safer. The latter part is what I took greater issue with.