See here is the problem however... If you return to the old ways of funding education the reality is that most NPC caliber people simply neglect to educate their children because it costs them out of pocket. And when the lower tiers of your society neglect to educate their children, you end up with a generation of uneducated poor people. And when you have a generation of uneducated poor people you end up with far worse social problems in you society. Education is "free" to the masses because it is good for society. It is one of the few things we know of that has a direct positive effect on every single metric by which we judge our society. Name a problem and there is data that shows that the problem is positively impacted in the long term by more/better education. So even if you do not receive the direct benefit of the education system, spending public funds to ensure you do not have roving gangs of retarded children is still a good idea.