Because it’s the wrong kind of “engagement”. When they say they want parents more involved, they mean that they want parents to blindly reinforce the indoctrination they’re inflicting on the kids in the classroom, not to question the content of their curriculum.
Springfield is a thriving little city. Population was only around 80000 when I lived there in “91,92. The jr High school my son went to didn’t have enough text books. The story we were given was that a st louis judge had ruled that they had to spend their resources on busing, desegregation. Didn’t leave funds for textbooks. Gotta get your priorities right!