I'll agree, as I think an educated populace is public good. However, the education system needs to come to realize that a college education is not the be-all/end-all.

I'd recommend something more like the German model or the (older) UK model. At some point in your adolescence you're tracked to go to college and advanced studies, or you finish and learn a trade via apprenticeships or other training. Until that point, a solid foundation in arithmetic, history, basic sciences, language skills, etc should be built.

Dragging an uninterested 16-17 y.o. to high school graduation and then dumping the marginally educated but also unskilled individual onto the public doesn't work. It also dilutes the quality of prep for the college-bound during the final few years of high school.

Some will say this is elitist and doesn't account for late bloomers, and they might be right. It would also decrease the quality of NCAA athletics, so it'll never fly.