While this is very generous and I get that his heart is in the right place, but it's also problematic. For instance, it rewards frivolous spenders the most. Hell, some very hard workers may have little to no debt at all, thinking they were being the responsible ones. Now they'll have to accept that all that hardship was worthless from a financial perspective. Teaches the wrong lesson.
I'm hoping that how this actually works is that he covers the cost of their tuition, rather than simply pay off their debt. That way it benefits the whole class the same, and it doesn't reward the lax over the hardworking.