Has Education Become Less Important?

There has been such a backlash in this country lately concerning public education that I have been left to wonder if we are becoming a country that simply does not care about educating everyone. In my American Ethnic Lit class I teach about the beginning of public education in this country and how the US could boast of being the one place where everyone could be educated. Are we moving to a place where only those who can afford school will be able to go to school?