Egalitarians picture college prep as a free lunch: anyone who fails academically can switch to the vocational track, so everyone might as well start with academics. This ignores the disturbing possibility that after academic students crash, they’ll be too embittered to learn a trade.36 When such students start on the academic route, they learn how to do zero jobs. When they start on the vocational route, in contrast, they probably learn how to do one job.
