Very ignorant view of mathematics that also begs the question with an unspoken assumption of what a government is and wants while also ignoring the contingent nature of those things throughout history.
Higher math is exceptionally useful for cryptography, defense, econometrics etc. I have a hard time thinking of other motivations that would hold a candle against such things.
Is the idea that government (for my purposes : folks w/ a monopoly on violence) is sincerely interested in promoting human flourishing, and is invested in mathematics insofar as it is a pure expression of human curiosity? I can also maybe see the glorification through monument building angle. If we're talking about math literacy in the population - that's distinct in my mind from higher mathematics.
It's dangerously naive to believe that science and math are pursued for majority benign purposes. No one here knows about Grothendieck?