Unfortunately college puts up the same barriers. Much of the time I spent in high school learning to code was for nothing, because my university wouldn't let me even attempt to test out of the first- and second-year courses. In another instance they also wouldn't let me count a graduate statistics course for a baby-stats elective requirement. "We WoULdn'T bE an AccREdiTeD iNStiTutION if wE lEt yOU do THat!"

I ended up majoring in math instead of compsci as a result. It ended up being a good choice, because now I have skills in both areas. But I was pretty disappointed as an incoming freshman, enthusiastic about computer science, that college was nothing like what my parents and teachers made it out to be.

It's not, though. Kids with stay-at-home parents are still required to go to school. Compulsory education is near universal at this point, but at least in the American tradition, the first publicly-funded, mandatory schools were mostly for instilling community values into kids, and this was in communities where women weren't even allowed to work outside the home. Kids were actually expected to learn reading and math at home before they even started school.

History isn't the present, but the reason most laws exist today is just inertia, not some principled stand of the legislative bodies that might otherwise be able to repeal them.