rising tides lift all boats

school wasn't compulsory for most of human history. private schooling was the norm, and private school, like now, was very expensive. as a result, most people worked physical jobs and gained limited skills beyond this.

the idea of public school where everyone had a fair shot of developing skills for knowledge work was an extremely progressive concept in the beginning. what you're asking is the impact of undoing this. many states are essentially trying this through private school vouchers funded by public school dollars.

i think is a very unfortunate regression; unfortunately, it takes a generation of change for impacts to realize.