RE: Question 1: School to work

You're right!!  Not all young people are interested in college and not all young people are college ready.  Making college something that "all Americans have a right to" has diluted the college experience and the education we could once get there.  A viable vocational training program in adult schools and RCOPs is a very effective means of creating full citizens.  Productive members of society come in many stripes and are needed by all of us.  I need an upholsterer just as much as I need an accountant. An expansion of these kinds of opportunities for our high school graduates is a really intelligent way to spend our education $$$$.