Slow the bus or leave 'em at the station?

I'm reading the new book by Thomas Friedman, That Used To Be Us, where he makes the case that our educational system is a hollow shell of it's former self, pumping out kids who cannot compete in the global economy.  We have dumbed down education over the years because we don't want to "leave any child behind", so we've just slowed the bus to a crawl.  Now we're getting run over.


So should we ramp things up, demand more of our students (and their parents), push 'em harder and accept that more of them aren't going to finish the marathon?  For those that can thrive under those pressures the sky will be the limit, but for those that can't....or won't....they'll be forever trapped in menial, low paying jobs.  It will create an even faster widening of the "have's" and "have nots" gap.


Here's the rub:  Let's be honest....the vast majority of those who can't or won't succeed in the new educational pressure cooker will be minorities, in numbers far greater than their percentage of the population should suggest.   Can you hear the whine of "racism"?


Since these kids are going to wind up in blue collar jobs anyway, why not acknowledge that trade schools have a valuable place in our society and direct those kids there?  And if they can't make it there, well that's just too bad.  The bus has left the station.  Do we have the collective cojones to do that?


S