The importance of education may be different than you were taught.

"We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish." - F. A. Hayek
The supposed purpose of education, as marketed by the education industry, is career advancement, higher pay, and empowering a college graduate's job search. This represents the current personal importance of education as determined by a few studies performed back when bureaucratic machines were still humming. We will discuss the social importance of education later.
Educational importance before the industrial revolution was tied to:

1) learning,
2) preparation for wise leadership and personal achievement,
3) opening your mind to new ideas.

What about today?  More importantly, what about tomorrow?

The bureaucratic era is ending.

You must now determine what will be most important, to you and your children, in the future.