I know a fair amount on this topic. CS in education is poor and even the decent stuff is a waste. This is partially a ploy to lower wages and over saturate the CS market (or funded by those with that motivation.) Even more so as shit programmers are enhanced by AI tools. I don't look forward to fixing all that code...
1st off we have a complex world. It made the successful nations force teenagers to get free education generations ago. Now we are more complex. We need more advanced free mandatory education... or universal mandatory post secondary education. This does not mean just STEM.
2nd, we do not need CS. People are piss poor at math, logic, and in the USA, the reading skill level of the majority is below 6th grade. Critical thinking of 1/3 is embarrassingly bad. We can't prop up the lower half of the bell curve with a STEM based economy any more than we can move to an art and poem economy to counter AI. We could however find jobs recognizing crosswalks, bridges, and bicycles in images...
3rd, creativity and curiosity are declining for at least two generations from what I've heard from educators in those areas. Addictions and their impact on attention spans along with delayed gratification have been a problem even longer.
4th, we have many times the number of STEM graduates than we have STEM jobs. At least for a decade this has been the case. I suggest looking into what IEEE says because that is where I've seen that data. A majority of these are also difficult jobs without matching pay or job security.
5th, most the youth and slightly less adults in the USA lack depth of thought on most subjects; they don't contemplate just consume thoughtlessly to fulfill impulses. Not saying they are better or worse than other cultures but simply more degraded by their culture of which I've been an observer for 40+ years. Since gen X, there is an ignorant over confidence increasing making me wonder if dunning krugar is a genetic disease. Confidence is in abundance; the justification for it is severely lacking. Trump really does represent possibly a majority.
SO MANY LARGER FACTORS MUST BE ADDRESSED! CS and STEM are a band aid trying to cure cancer. people need to wake the shit up. We can't even discover reality; everything is just a narrative now.... so you go find the one that gives you warm fuzzies. I'm sticking to bleak reality.
Math and Reading skills are critical. I also don't mean your typical CS major with poor english and mediocre math skills from 20 years ago; it has gone way below that. I saw "classic" CS students decrease maybe 60% in 30 years; but enrollment increased significantly. A foundation must exist upon which to build.