The general dumbing down is what happens when you have scientists who could teach school, who know the subject extremely well, but have not had all the required coursework in upper-level babysitting and social programming required to get a teaching certificate (so they cannot legally teach for pay). OTOH, those who have degrees in "education" spent their semester hours getting educated to educate, not necessarily learning the material to teach.
Still, making our children less capable has been a Communist goal for a long time, because the ignorant are more maleable.
Logically, you are quite right. The issue of energy sufficiency can be covered thoroughly without impinging on creation/evolution discussions. But our eminent Canadian professor tosses in the “biology” angle just the same, just to be sure we don’t forget that “real scientists” dictate the whole shootin’ match.
And no one leads the blind off a cliff faster than the well meaning idiot Communist sympathizing liberal.
It's all about "social justice", and touchy feely crap like that!