The real question is why are the high school and some college group smarter than the group with degrees. It made me laugh reading minutes from a school board meeting the other day. The PHD superintendent, called classified employees a dime a dozen. These are people who have worked for the district for years, perform multiple tasks, and constantly go above and beyond doing things that are not part of their job that people with degrees wont do.
And a person who is in a position who's average length of service to a district is 2 years called them literally, "A dime a dozen." "They aren't worth more money." Mean while the school pays a superintendent, and two former superintendents, as advisors while they also collect retirement, all at the superintendent rate. Also meanwhile, they can't fill classified positions, and their starting wage on their salary schedule for those positions has fallen below minimum wage. Which means they are starting people at at step 7 or 8, making the same as people who have been there for 7 or 8 years.