Algebra is another story but if you ask university math faculty their opinions of high school AP "Calculus" you might want to sit down first.
I also in high school, I took Pascal as a learning to program/into class. I college I learned Ada, and it was a breeze due to my high school.
I feel thankful to my last year in public school in middle of no where, rural VA, as it gave me great education/foundation that I did really well in college.
I feel bad, as now Virginia is doing the same crap with math in the name of equity. Dumbing things down to the least common denominator is terrible, especially for smart/capable immigrants like I was. We don't have the luxury of private schools, and public schools are starting to pull the rug out as well.
It is awful
Ap calc is a joke from my perspective. I’m not sure how to solve the crisis, but it’s plain to see that American students that test into calc are woefully underprepared. I’ve tried to advise students to start with more fundamental courses, but they’ve been told they are “gifted” their whole lives. They ignore you and charge into calculus. Then they come back when the semester is about to end to reassess options. Just like that, what would have been another perfectly serviceable American engineer is lost.
Math is a useful skill for everyone, including calculus. Not everybody goes to university, so we should teach it in HS.
Most people's lives and jobs involve even less math than mine does.
More stats probably would have been helpful. Anything less-obviously-useful needs a hell of a lot more emphasis on what it's used for and how to apply it than I ever received, IMO, unless you're a pure-math major, and certainly in k-12 since almost none of the kids are going to be math majors.
I used trig yesterday to figure out what angle I needed to cut a board (I'm building a barn).
I used calculus a few weeks ago to help solve an issue I was having with a water tank.
[EDIT] actually, I take that back, I do sometimes work with odd angles but never do it without a physical template built and fitted, because attempts to do it "cute" or figure it out purely on paper have a history of being hilariously wrong (when I do them) even when the math is 100% correct (according to the evidently-not-precise-enough measurements).
... and then I got a new job when I was 43, in medical x-ray machines. Suddenly everything was 3D coordinate transforms, Fourier transforms, and integrals, plus radiation physics.
You don't need or use this stuff... until you do.