Actually, in many schools, evolution might cover a week or so of high school biology. It is really not covered all that in depth. Nor do I think that the state has any concern about how accurately it's taught, so long as they can avoid run ins with the ACLU by NOT teaching creation.
And honestly, knowledge of the ToE has so little relevance to what the vast majority of people are going to do with the rest of their lives, that that is why it's seen as an indoctrination issue.
IMO, it could be totally avoided at the high school level and nobody would notice the difference. Even if it's well taught, it's not being well received. If the kids even pay attention to it in the first place and haven't slept through it in class, or listened to their iPods instead, or done homework for a different class, they still have to assimilate it correctly. Kids can pass the Biology regents even if they totally fail the evolution part. How does anyone expect kids that are barely literate or numerate, to understand scientific concepts of any kind?
Any one who needs to know anything about evolution can learn what is relevant to their career fields at the college level.
Really? My school spent about a month and half on it... Eh, maybe my memory is just plain wrong about it.
That said, I agree with you that high school education is more or less a joke. Honestly, if history and geography received half as much public attention as science did, the country would be in a much better state right now... The teaching of cause and effect, and the importance of minor actions, would serve to make people much more responsible.
History, properly taught and properly received, changes lives. Science? It's useful, and it's important, but to prioritize it over history is a huge mistake, as far as I'm concerned...