More education = higher jobs for more people = more people have money = more people spend money at walmart/amazon/malls/movies/local restaurants/etc... Some of these people will use their money to start businesses.

Some of these people may have ended up in a poverty trap all their lives, and never contributed. One may even go on to end cancer, or do something amazing with the extra opportunity they now have.

Education ALWAYS contributes to society as a whole, not just that individual. America needs to start valuing education more, I see dumbasses on social media and elsewhere who don't fact check anything, believe everything they're told and can't even tell which side of the civil war Lincoln was fighting on.

They are the same people Jay Leno used to make fun of by asking simple questions on his Jay Walking bit.

Well, it might indirectly do it depending on the tax structure. That's why the capital gains tax is lower than general income tax, for example.

But I'm thinking we would use the money to more directly encourage investment. Small business programs are good here, including classes, mentoring, and small-business loans.

An increased supply of high skill workers? An increased supply of people who are economically secure, and thus not interested in "eating the rich"?

Publicly paying for education is one of the most fundamental kinds of investment in society