I agree with you and Medusa, inasmuch as money spent on education is never wasted - in fact it is not 'spent', but invested. The returns are enormous - the march of civilisation has been dependent upon the acquisition and dissemination of information (otherwise known as education) since humankind emerged from the primordial slime.
It is my view that all education, from Kindergarten to Doctorates of Philosophy, should be funded by the state as the right of every citizen. Insufficient funds? Build fewer aircraft carriers and unmanned drones, and spend less money blowing up brown people around the world. Bail out fewer giant financial institutions, and failed mega-corporations. Let your President travel on commercial airlines rather than maintaining Airforce One, and all the panoply of security for his every journey. This applies as much to my society as it does to the USA.
A tertiary educated society is one in which there is less likely to be prejudice, illiteracy, violence and xenophobia. And a society wherein education is seen as a training for life, not merely a means to a higher income, is one in which civilisation is well established. A society in which one may reasonably expect to discuss the works of Gustav Mahler, or the philosophies of Kant, with the man who comes to mend your dishwasher.