To simply say YES or NO to the question posed herein is not to address the real problem. I began my teaching career as a graduate assistant who taught in the Developmental Studies department. My experiences there demonstrated to me that students aren't looking for education as much as they are looking for jobs. Those leaning toward technical strengths ought to be led that way, while those with academic strengths ought to be led the other way. The student should be given every opportunity to advance either technically or academically whether he or she tests in another direction or not, to maintain fairness and to allow late bloomers to blossom in spite of early shortfalls.
High schools ought to begin a process of socialization as well as education.
If students, young men and women, are going to spend as much of their waking day in school as do factory workers or other employed people at their respective jobs, then the same care and training time needs to be given them for interpersonal, ie. I was concerned less with homework and more with survival, less with receiving a training and more with avoiding a braining. I currently teach in a community college in rural Appalachia where many of these problems are glaringly obvious. I see students without the education they were supposed to get in high school and students who decided to avoid the education they were allowed and therefore dropped out. I believe community and technical colleges are part of the solution but not all of it.