I know more about how it all happened in China than I do about what went on here - but here I know that a state school education was free or very cheap in a lot of places - and education funding was a very serious budget item after the soviets launched Sputnik. A lot of people suspect that the social upheaval in the late 60's owes a lot to our over-educating people - and that's why it's not free anymore and educated people are saddled with debt instead.

Black and white views aren't the monopoly of the youth though I do agree with you - look at our last administration. Childish, maybe, but they were definitely defining things in black and white - even if they operated almost totally in the grey.