The irrationality here lies in the completely misguided idea that education should be a good you pay for individually. The benefit to society of having an educa

The irrationality here lies in the completely misguided idea that education should be a good you pay for individually. The benefit to society of having an educated populace far outweighs the costs of education for the individuals. In other words, it makes sense for government to heavily subsidize it. If, that is, government were interested in the welfare of its populace instead of the welfare of its donors.