In most of Europe we have gymnasiums (advanced secondary) and lyceums (advanced high) schools, while primary is "just school" and the same for everyone. After primary education, usually 4 years, entry exams are held at gymnasiums, which have a lot of profiles (PhysMath, ChemBio, Philology etc, mine was Informatics), and those talented enough to pass them are transferred there, while the majority is filtered out and stays in "just schools". After secondary education (4 more years) people could get their high school level education at their "just school" or gymnasium, or either go to lyceum (requires exams) or college (as well). Lyceums are usually for those who aim at doing science at universities, and colleges for those for whom associate's degree is good enough (like me). What is really useful is that with associate's degree people could admit to the 3rd year of university of related profile to get their bachelor's in usually 2 more years. The profitable outcome of such a system is that everybody gets treated depending on their ability, resources are spent effectively and least common denominator doesn't sinks talents. Btw all of those are totally free, so no "social class" advantages are held by anyone. Maybe it's time for US to have gymnasiums and lyceums as well?