and i'm not suggesting that we withhold a level of education from children that is in the interest of the child and society. but deciding what that level is should not be left up to people who have an investment in maintaining universal education for people who will never profit from it. consider this: i took math up to trigonometry. i had enough math aptitude to pursue a higher level of math, and the school i attended offered it, but it would have been fruitless for me to take college level algebra or calculus, since i was not going to seek employment in a field where those kinds of academic subjects would add to my skill set. now ratchet this back a couple of degrees. what should be the minimum level of math that every student should be proficient in? who should decide that? and who should decide whether every student, regardless of ability, can enroll in classes beyond the minimum level? my opinion on this issue is that educators who are not doing a good job of teaching kids in the middle of the pack, let alone the kids that are not performing up to grade level, are not competent to make these decisions. they have too much invested in failure to be trusted to establish tiers for educational programs.