https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/09/business/china-ev-battery-tech.html
Stressing science education, China is outpacing other countries in research fields like battery chemistry, crucial to its lead in electric vehicles.
But why? To ensure some status quo by making higher education only available to an existing upper class?
In Germany I have the impression that decreased support for basic ecucation is at least partly connected to the increasingly inversed age pyramid, but that may not be the whole story.
In the US, students protesting the Vietnam war directly led to the end of free public education in California. Generally, the wealthy seem to fear an "overeducated" working class that is overly conscious of both world affairs and their own class position. Charging high tuition (and granting legacy admission, etc.) guarantee that the wealthy make up the majority of those who end up going though college.