Scapegoating.
Shifting the focus to something as inconsequential as creationisism not only serves the purpose of justifying public ridicule of people of faith, but it also allows the obfiscation of the true curriculum deficits within public schools and even some private educational institutions, today.
Lousy, agenda-driven textbooks that focus on environmentalism and speciation at the expense of the scientific method and studies of basic chemistry and physics is just one example.