A growing body of commentary argues that AI-driven job disruption will force states and systems to rethink how young people prepare for work—potentially revisiting the role of high school education. One piece points to a historical parallel: compulsory education laws helped expand the higher-secondary pipeline after agricultural job losses reshaped the labor market. The same argument is applied to today’s labor market uncertainty, noting that fewer than two-thirds of students who enroll in college earn a degree within six years and that many graduates face underemployment. The article points to state initiatives such as Alabama’s proposal to reimagine high school so students are prepared for work and life beyond a single college pathway. For higher-education leaders, the practical takeaway is pipeline risk: workforce-ready preparation decisions happening earlier in the K-12 system can affect enrollment demand, remediation needs, and the composition of incoming college cohorts.