As I said before: math courses are objective, so they make a reasonable "canary in the coal mine" for a failed education. Maybe you don't need math. But if you

As I said before: math courses are objective, so they make a reasonable "canary in the coal mine" for a failed education. Maybe you don't need math. But if you can't pass the course, there may be other serious problems. It's easy enough to keep pushing kids/adults forward by redefining success in other subjects. Extra credit, dubious essay standards, grade inflation, etc. We need math to keep the system honest.