Your comments are quite reasonable and an excellent indication of why public education is failing. It is also why decisions such as Dover will not strengthen science education-- it will weaken it-- if adherence to evolution science is indeed strength. 80 percent of the American public does not approve of how evolution is taught in schools today. That creates an unmanageable political problem which a minority is trying force by way of the establishment clause.
These processes are hurting the overall education effor.
For what it's worth, we have a limited number of Catholic schools in our city and a whole host of public ones.
Just one of the Catholic High Schools had more National Merit Scholars (based on test scores from PSAT/SAT, I think) than ALL of the entire public school system put together.
And that's using the state's own testing system.
I'd say their education's not suffering one whit, wouldn't you?