I'm 66 years old. I know quite a lot about "Imperial Entanglements".
Recently I learned how to have some influence in the school system. The County is now in the process of equipping a wonderful machine shop to my specifications so that I can teach high school kids how to build robots AFTER HOURS. It turns out that there are very good people within school systems, it just takes time to learn who they are and to gain their confidence.
Weird things do go on in schools; however, there are many within who wage our battle in subtle ways. I have learned first hand that an old conservative curmudgeon like myself can influence school decisions in significant ways. Also, my very non-PC approach has endeared me with my insiders.
Government schooling is fundamentally evil. It violates all the First Amendment Rights of the children ( speech, press, assembly, and free exercise of religion) and the children in these schools risk learning to be comfortable with government tyranny. The religious worldview taught in these schools is atheistic secular humanism. The children will learn to think and reason godlessly. They must just to cooperate in the godless classroom. How could it be otherwise?
And...Please remember, that it only took one to three generations of socialist-entitlement and government cartel schooling to give the nation Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. With each generation of government schooling the nation deteriorates further.