You’re right. My favorite movie line is from Judge Smails in Caddyshack. “The world needs ditch diggers, too.” Not everyone is or will ever be college material. But we all need a skill or trade. We need mechanics, home repair men, construction workers, etc. I vote for a two-tiered set of schools, one is college-prepartory and the other more of a trade school. My wife insists that we need to go back to having all male/female schools and that would solve much of the problem.
My late grandmother taught in NYC public for 50 years.
Whenever anyone came up with one or another equalizing schemes, she would always say, "Well, that's very nice but somebody's going to have to clean the subways".
That wasn't a movie. That was real.