re: Why does our educational system glorify stem and 4 year degrees?

The issue is that society finds the idea that you would prioritize educational resources by aptitude repugnant. When the kids are being discussed, people feel like steering or denying opportunity based on demonstrated aptitude is unjust. Add the politics on top of it and the messaging would be my opponent doesn't think your kid is smart enough to chase the American dream.

Most people prefer the outlier illusion of coming from nothing to be something surprising to the numbers which demonstrate very few people do that.

ETA: SFP's dismissive post above did more to demonstrate exactly what I just said than just about anything else could. QED.