It works hand in hand with the dismantling of public schooling.  Underfund education so only the elite can be schooled and the masses will remain uninformed and pliable. This is why the GI Bill led to many more Americans going to college which led to the Civil Rights Movement and other social changes of the 60s.  It is also why Bush et al. seek to make paying for college harder today and make policies that make he public school system worse under the guise of making it better.