When you read about the "hollowing out" of the economy and the disappearance of the middle class, reference is made to this bipolarization of the workforce. The result is to force many people downward economically.
Just because we've outsourced most manufacturing jobs to China and most call center jobs to India, doesn't mean we've "disappeared" the people who once filled those "middle" jobs. Those people are still here, living down the street or across town. Now they compete for fewer and fewer jobs driving trucks or working as firefighters - jobs that cannot be off-shored or, as yet, replaced with technology. Because more people compete for fewer jobs, the wages of such jobs are pushed down.
Education is proposed as a solution for this problem, and it will help some fraction of the middle group. Many of the individuals in this group are people for whom the education system doesn't "work." Which raises the question, what becomes of them? Do we keep them on a permanent dole, as is done in Europe? That is their sad solution to the problem, not a good one.
Alternatively, we may need governmental policies to repatriate the jobs they once held. What these policies might be is unclear.
