> pre-college education is learning the fundamentals that do not depend on the job market.
That's the problem, though. Some companies, and many parents and students, no longer see it as that. They see secondary school as a place to train their future employees. And, because parents so often have to work multiple jobs, kids often come out knowing nothing about finance, so they complain about having to take classes like Algebra II.
To be honest, I feel like a lot of the problem could be solved if companies would actually go back to investing in employees. They want their employees to come fully-trained nowadays, and then don't really care about keeping them or their development. It pushes everything off onto the schools, which is also why so many feel like they have to attend university.