When I was a young troutgirl, my high school did not have AP classes because they felt their mission was to educate the majority rather than spending an inordinate amount of resources on a small number of high achievers.

Now education in America for young strivers requires them to spend money on outside tutors, give up sleep and rest, and probably take antidepressants to deal with the incessant pressure of feeling like a failure all the time. It's an arms race!

All AP tests let me do was not take classes in college. Doesn't seem worth it.

there is a difference between the difficulty of getting into a tier 1 college and AP classes, yes? What is the point of high school? is it more about education or maturity?

I was expelled from high school after 10th grade AND attended a tier 1 college... so I'm the very last person who would have a good answer. :)

Jared, high school should be more about maturity: learning how to learn, learning motivation, learning how to interact with others.

AP emphasizes book learning, which arguably is the least important part of a high school education, since in retrospect most of those details fade with time.

I skipped an entire YEAR  of college from my 30 AP credits... so yeah.. with the prices class credits were even in 1994, it was very much worth it.

Also, those AP classes kept me segregated from the troglodytes who routinely abused and bullied me. I would literally not be where I am right now without that safer learning environment.  So yes again, it's worth it.

Adam, this sounds like you are combining education and maturity into a single thing. "Jared, high school should be more about maturity: learning how to learn, learning motivation, learning how to interact with others."

Does high school offer the best place for either maturity or education to take place? 

I would offer that taking bright students who could pass the GED as freshman and placing them into more real world learning opportunities would improve their learning, maturity, and social interaction. high school seems to be a worse place in how peers treat one another than the adult world. 

Jared, what Jason mentioned affirms your point. High school is a worse place than the adult world.