It's true that taking a programming class isn't the same as taking a high school foreign language class, but it's also true that taking a high school foreign language class is unlikely to give you any meaningful proficiency in that language: https://www.econlib.org/archives/2012/08/the_marginal_pr.htm...
This Liberty Fund-supported libertarian op-ed is involuntarily a strong indictment of US high school education. In other countries, children learn foreign languages just fine in school.
Right now I am teaching an introductory chemistry course at a university somewhere in flyover country. The majority of the students does not know enough 8th grade math to calculate basic stoichiometric relations. Basic algebra is beyond their reach. Using libertarian logic, it follows that we should drop high school math altogether, because teaching it in school is a waste of time, the kids do not learn it.
I think a lot of it is lowered overall expectations (from parents to schools), promoting kids that didn't complete the actual grade satisfactorily, etc. When I went to school, I knew 2 kids that were held back a grade in elementary school... neither were held back again.
