In my highschool there were honors courses, but no AP courses. The school district wanted to replace honor courses with AP courses so that students might earn course credits for college. However the school district was in a working class town were most adults did not have college educations. The introduction of AP courses was fiercely opposed by many of these people, ostensibly because they didn't think it would be fair that taxpayers would have to pay for college credits, when they themselves never went to college.

Crab bucket mentality. It's real.