I recollect we had to have two years in high school or most subjects, and four years of English (9-12). Foreign language (I took Latin, waste of time), science, math, history, etc. We'd all like the learning to be better, but if you want more time spent on X, you have less spent on Y, unless you eliminate study halls.
The thing about history and social studies for me was how BORING they were, usually taught by coaches, and just boring. Memorize and regurgitate and forget. I helped the wife with her citizenship exam (she was stressed over it) and was fairly impressed with the exam questions (presuming you'd need to know them all anyway, they asked her maybe 4 of them?). But for your average 15 year old, learning about the three branches of government is "Why do I need to know this?".
I knew some well educated "friends" in Cincinnati who were astonished to learn that the candidate who gets fewer popular votes can WIN, I'm serious, people with college degrees, and who profess to pay attention to the "news". And then they were astonished to be told (by me) that it was very very very difficult to change that "rule". They couldn't understand why or how and thought it was "unfair". One got mad at me, literally, and told me I couldn't possibly be telling her the truth.