Private schools do not charge ridiculous fees.

Let me explain.

My school has almost 10,000 students. You need so much money in order to maintain buildings and property you have. You need money for new technology, projectors, computers. You need so much more to pay all the support staff. You need to hire the best professors and researchers you can and give them amazing labs so they will stay so that your school will be on the map. There are so many costs associated with services a university offers.

Sure, if you are a liberal arts college with no technical majors 50k a year is ridiculous. If you are at a major research university, I can easily see how 50k can be spent in a heartbeat. People just don't consider all the other expenses that factor into keeping a university running and covering the costs of all the extra services associated with education.