The student uprisings of autumn 2026 are often described as a crisis for France's National Education system. Overcrowded classrooms, absent or unreplaceable teachers, insufficient staff, deteriorating school infrastructure, and increasing pressure on students' career choices and future prospects are all part of this crisis. However, a deeper question emerges: how much can a society continue to invest in its future when the cost of its past is rising faster than its financial capacity? Behind the physical challenges of education, a growing portion of public resources is being used to pay off debt. When money is scarce, it is crucial to consider what the state must already pay before it can make new decisions. Students are criticizing the visible symptoms of the crisis, demanding more teachers, supervisors, nurses, and social workers, less overcrowding, and better-maintained schools. Alongside these demands are concerns about career guidance, continuous assessment, and the Parcoursup system, which plays a major role in determining students’ futures. These demands represent the surface of the issue. Beneath each call for more resources lies a budgetary question: where will the money come from? A government cannot keep distributing money it doesn’t have, especially when it is already spending significant sums on past obligations. In 2026, the interministerial mission "School Education" is allocated 64.5 billion euros, excluding the contribution to the special allocation account "Pensions." This budget supports the education of 13 million students and apprentices, from kindergarten to high school. However, the French Treasury Agency now expects the budgetary burden of debt to reach 62.6 billion euros in 2026, more than the initial 59.3 billion planned in the finance law. The budgetary burden of the state's debt was 38.5 billion euros in 2021, then 51.5 billion in 2022, 54.8 billion in 2023, and 50.1 billion in 2024. The average interest rate on the state's medium and long-term debt issuance is 3.55% in 2026, compared to 3.14% in 2025. The situation becomes even more pronounced in 2027. The French Treasury Agency expects the budgetary burden of debt to reach 72.9 billion euros—more than the 64 billion allocated to school education. The Ministry of Economy predicts the cost of public debt interest will rise to 91.2 billion euros in 2027, compared to 79.2 billion in 2026. The government plans a total restructuring effort of public accounts of 54 billion euros for 2027, aiming to reduce the public deficit to 5% of GDP by that year. The real debate is not just about teacher numbers, salaries, school buildings, or the budgets of the National Education system. It is about the financial structure behind these trade-offs. Students see the symptoms, and teachers see the consequences. Ministers see the trade-offs, and accountants see the budget lines. Behind all these realities lies the same question: how much does the past now cost our future? A debt is never merely a number on a balance sheet. It is a promise made today on revenues that must be generated tomorrow. When this promise becomes large enough, it eventually changes the choices of the present. This is how debt ceases to be a simple tool. It becomes a political constraint, then an economic one, then a generational one, and finally, a question of freedom. The real issue may not be that school is too expensive. It is that a generation has accepted that another generation's future can be mortgaged and then asked, why there isn’t enough left to build its own future.