I think these are all excellent points. When people complain about too much testing in school, authorities like to respond with, "oh! It's not that much time, blah, blah, blah." However, it is not just the time that testing (and the pseudo academic college prep rigor that we require) takes. It is that we have crowded out time for truly useful subjects like home ec (which includes heathy eating, financial management, etc).

People leave school with the ability to regurgitate battles from the revolutionary war, but not skills that really matter.