[musicale]

The point is a good one - we assume that the benefit of K-12 public education is worth spending money on, and that there is a societal benefit to providing that education at no direct cost to students or their parents.

In contrast, (nominally) private higher education seems to do pretty well financially - even "non-profit" universities. Charging up to $80K a year and/or eating billions of dollars in government grants probably helps - so they aren't exactly independent from public funding, but we consider that funding to be wortwhile in terms of research and education outcomes, even when it goes into the pockets of wealthy, elite institutions.