This is a bit shortsighted. Just because a country is in debt doesn't mean the best way forward is to pay off the debt as fast as possible. Once you're out of debt you'll still need to have an economy and well educated people to run the place. Imagine if the US took an even more extreme example and refused to pay police officers before the national debt. Good luck for recovering from actual anarchy.

You can't reverse past bad policy, you can only move forward from where you're standing.

Indeed, and that's exactly the model much of the world uses for adult education. Except that better early-years schooling has at least as large and probably much bigger effect on the future productivity and health of society.