I suggest all anyone really needs to be successful are the 4R's: reading, writing, rhetoric, and arithmetic. These are our forms of communication. With a solid foundation in these skills, a person can learn anything else. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have other institutions for specialized learning. All we need on that front for a successful person or society is to have the options available for someone to explore other topics in a formal setting (a Free Market of education).

"Mandatory education for children" is completely unnecessary, and, as it turns out, an intentional fraud from day one, designed specifically to indoctrinate the plebs (AKA not the 1%). For reference on these claims, see the origins of the Prussian school system (starting on page 50) on which all of the worlds education systems are designed. An elucidation of the connections to todays schools is elaborated in Weapons of Mass Instruction, by John Taylor Gatto).

The entire concept of credentials is also a fraud, designed by the same person (Rockefeller et al) who designed our "modern school system". If you want to hire someone for a job, test them on the skills they need to do the job. That's all you need to do. Maybe an assessment of their personality: do you think they will fit in? It really isn't more complicated than that. "References," or "education," or "past work experience," are either irrelevant to doing the job at hand, or lies or half truths that are easily fabricated.