Oh, I agree that this is a problem, but you have to admit that attempting to patch workers is a far better medium term solution than trying to besiege the education system for 20 years.
Sure, it doesn't have to be an either/or thing, but it's important to realize that our current problems are many years in the making and might take many years to really fix.
For a simpler long term fix, we could just change how we do college admissions. For example, if we raised the entry requirements for 18 year-olds and kept the requirements re people in their mid-20s and up.
That would eliminate lots of liberal arts majors very quickly, replacing them with more technical people who are better motivated for difficult subjects. It's not an elegant solution, but it's probably easier than untangling the knot of education or somehow getting the political will to slice it in twain.
