I am surprise by the number in my state , it's sad. By no means does education is cut for everybody for reason unknown to us. IMO they must at least have a high school education . I have seen my people with a high school diploma and become a highly successful citizens of the communities. My guess is finish high school aim for the best at what you like to do, if you failed at least you are still good.
As the saying goes you only need to be a step ahead to beat the crowd.
I have a small business and I am going to judge you on what you can do and getting along with people then purely on Education alone.

POP for the comment.

The need for instant success has become the norm. This means any failure at school will be interpreted as something is wrong with the system, not the student.
The virtual world of celebrities, computers and TV insulates failures in the school system.
The change will happen when enough decide that life is better with the education that can open creativuty or even just help with survival.

If you average out all the people in human history with less than 9 years education it would probably be less than 1 percent, I don't see what the big deal is.

This map is similar to the map on poverty. Dark areas match fairly well.

I wonder how this is tied to agriculture and ranching. Kids often miss out on education when helping the family business. My mother's family grew cotton and she missed the first 6 weeks of school for many years because the cotton had to be picked. To this day she doesn't know the Roman Numerals because they covered that at the beginning of each school year.

Here are more maps regarding similar statistics.These graphics require a discerning eye.

Also, There are some questions as to the veracity of the map suggested at the source. I did not investigate what these might be.