> How exactly is education a privilege? At least in the US, everyone has access to public education.

The article is literally about life in North Korea...

Should we then conclude that freedom of speech is a privilege because people in North Korea don’t have it?

Yes it is if the context is global.

Oxford dictionary:

privilege - a special right or advantage that a particular person or group of people has

1st example there: Education should be a universal right and not a privilege.

Globally, it's a privilege. Worldwide many girls can not get it. Or poor.

Even clean water is a privilege on a global scale. Perhaps in USA as well, ehm see Flint.

Language evolves. It's 21st century, privilege isn't about feudal taxes anymore. Queue meant tail and gay happy.

There's a danger when playing with words like this.

Privilege is bad. It's something we, as society, should strive to eliminate. When you say education is a privilege, what is the message there?

I understand that the OP, and you, are trying to convey a message of this type: I should be thankful that I get X, not everyone in the world gets X, and I will try to remind myself that X should not be taken for granted. Where X is education, but it can also be clean water, or maybe just the right to live, or the right to not go to a reeducation camp if you criticize the "dear leader".

I subscribe to that type of thinking.

I just don't think that using the word "privilege" is the best way to express this idea.