Educating the Proletariat

I'm going to pose a query here, and I want to hear your responses.

It has been said that knowledge is power, that what you know defines what you can do, and the more you know, the more control you have. Across time and the world, governments, corporate executives, and many others, whether they know it or not, utilize this thinking. The more educated you are, the higher your standing is in society.

In certain science fiction novels such as Brave New World or Fahrenheit 451, the powers that be utilize their knowledge to keep the proletariat (the masses) quiet. They keep them distracted with daily rations of drugs (soma), entertainment, sex, and games. The masses, distracted by their carnal desires, do not question the totalitarian governments and keep themselves unlearned. The government (especially in Brave New World) keeps them uneducated, knowing that such education would lead to the breakdown of their society.

Living in America, education is encouraged. For the most part, people are encouraged to finish at least high school and continue their education in college because it is considered a basic human right (a costly one after high school, but a right nonetheless). As a result, the number of people will college degrees keeps increasing, and at least an undergraduate education is becoming more common, making it more difficult to get ahead in today's economy with a degree and $80K in debt.

My question: should education be encouraged to the point where the masses stay educated and intelligent, and if so, how does one keep society operating optimally? Does one need the uneducated masses to perform supposedly menial jobs while the educated few at the top run society?

Note: this is no query of intellectual snobbery, just posing a thought I had. I'm pretty much a member of the proletariat pursuing the "American Dream" of an education, so this isn't me looking down on the "lower classes." Just thinking.