They have absolute zero interest in that. At least for the general public. Especially, you know, those people.
And why would they? After all, serfs and cannon fodder don’t need any education, just a little training.
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The Catholic church didn’t have much of a problem with Galileo’s scientific ideas. In fact, the papal astronomers – who were by no means incompetent and quite capable of recognising quality science – used them in their own work. It was quite acceptable to publish books about purportedly Bible-defying theories like heliocentrism if one labelled them as “hypothetical”, which made the Inquisition happy and of course did nothing to prevent other astronomers from basing further research on them.
Galileo got in trouble with the Church mostly because when he presented some of his ideas in a book he did this (deliberately or, more probably, by accident) in a way that could be construed to make Pope Urban VIII – actually a good friend and admirer of Galileo’s – look stupid, and that of course couldn’t be allowed.
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Galileo calls the defender of classical physics Simplicio which seems unlikely to be a neutral statement. But while it’s true that presentation is what got him in trouble, the inquisition still ruled that heliocentrism and the movement of the earth were heretical. I know scientists like Copernicus were presenting it as a mathematical convenience, but you can’t figure out why it works the way Descartes and Newton later tried under that pretext.
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According to Galileo’s own preface, the character in the book is called Simplicio after a famous Aristotelian (i.e., geocentrism-promulgating) philosopher, Simplicius. “Simplicio” also means “simpleton” in Italian, but the general consensus among historians seems to be that Galileo didn’t act out of deliberate malice – after all, Pope Urban VIII was a friend and benefactor of his – and was actually surprised that people took this as an attack on the Pope. Unfortunately for Galileo, Urban, who already worried about intrigue and threats to his position, wasn’t prepared to let this stand.
Descartes and Newton both lived and worked in Protestant countries (Descartes was originally French but he moved to the Netherlands and, later, Sweden) so what the Catholic church thought about their work and what it was based on wasn’t something they personally had to worry about.
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If anyone here has young people in their lives (or just enjoys reading YA literature themselves), Shannon Hale’s YA fantasy “Princess Academy” series includes really great story arcs about the value of education for lifting a community out of poverty and gaining respect, in a really heartfelt and sweet way. I wish more kids would get to read them!
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