are through the ceiling?" along with "Why do those with legacy admissions seem to do so much better after college financially than those who actually qualified academically?"
No one takes 4 years of core classes in college.
Job training is actually the job of business now, and has been since No Child Left Behind (NO, I do not support NCLB). Literacy, numeric manipulation, and critical thinking are the current job of high schools. Want high school to be a terminal degree?
Then get off No Child Left Behind, which killed vocational education to benefit the testing industry and return to where we were pre-1984, when welders, plumbers, cosmetologists, electricians, auto mechanics, auto paint and body folk, locksmiths, carpenters, framers, bricklayers, drywall techs, roofers, cabinet makers all graduated from the same high school where I now teach.
Those courses and licensing procedures have been moved by the Texas Legislature to junior colleges and post-secondary tech schools. Perhaps you can get an answer out of them - Lord knows I avoid contact in case terminal greediness is catching.