I say this as an education major, and former teacher. That being said, please keep fighting your PTA on this.
We didn't get actually useful information in high school, partially because our parents didn't think there was anything wrong with the curriculum.
I'm absolutely certain that there are multiple subjects that you may have skipped out on, if you'd had any idea that civics, shop, home economics, and maybe accounting were going to be the closest classes to "real world skills that all non collegate educated people still need to know."
Not just one. He managed to bankrupt 3 or 4 casinos on the Jersey Shore in Atlantic City in the late 80s and early 90s.
That's like burning down a mint 4 times.