Not French here, but it’s a common tendency across many western countries. Public education means higher expenditure and some countries are choking with debt so they have to brutally cut funds (education and healthcare are the preferred target, with education being at the first place because consequences are not immediately visible). The problem is not the elites anyway, it’s the rest of people letting them do it and justifying it. If their children will become cheap workforce, their parents will be to blame too.