America, why must you anger me so?

NYT: Evolution Takes a Back Seat in U.S. Classes

I can't imagine any other developed country where there is such a split in the populace on something evolution. Or the age of the earth (4.6 billion years, as I recall). Big bang? Fine, there's argument in the scientific community about exactly what happened anyway. However, the argument is over exactly what happened as opposed to the earth only being a few thousands of years old, created by God in 6 days. Arg. For crying out loud, two Pope's have OK'd evolution!
Having religious beliefs is all right with me. Kudos to you for your faith. However, just because you don't believe in it, and you don't want your kids to believe in something (fair enough, that's your choice), you shouldn't make that choice for everyone in your community. But that's what parents/community leaders/educators are doing when they either avoid the topic entirely or try to pass it off as 'just a theory.' Hate to break it to you, but most of science is 'just a theory.' There are a few things that arn't, like the laws of universal gravitation, but just because it's a 'theory' doesn't make it any less true, it just means it's still open to being updated and advanced to match new discoveries.
Furthermore, since a large segment of the populace doesn't believe in evolution, politicians can't oppose it for fear of not getting re-elected.
This kind of stuff just makes me angry.

And just for the record, in sophomore Bio, my teacher explicitly mentioned three possibilities for life as we know it on earth: 'creationism' (and she left that one at that), the standard amino acids from some primordial ooze etc, and then microbes hitching a ride on some meteor. Is it fine that she mentioned all three? Perfectly. However, we spent plenty of time going over specific examples supporting evolution, like moths in industial-revolution England going from white to dark gray over the course of a few years to match the soot-stained trees and buildings in the region.

So, not only does science education have to deal with these sorts of battles but also reduced funding in cash-strapped districts so that students will be able to do well on mandated reading and math tests. Arts/music gets the shaft too, for that matter.
Save our science, music and art education!

/rant

[Update 6:30pm]: The new face of America.