Until the leftist lock on schools is loosed, there will never be academic freedom in any institutions other than private ones.
(And I apologize for the inference that you were talking about the President. On the thread where he advocated academic freedom by allowing ID to be taught in science classes, a number of your colleagues accused him of communist/fascist control over schools. It, of course, was a ludicrous accusation......which is why I was surprised when I thought you had used it. I apologize again for my mistake).
I would also prefer a totally private school system, and agree with vouchers and every other measure to work towards it. However we are stuck with large numbers of students subjected to the public schools for the foreseeable future.
In this unfortunate context it is my view that the single most effective way to limit and eliminate leftist pablum in the curricula is to insistently demand that high, hard-nosed and objective academic standards be applied to subject matter inclusion (and exclusion). Attempts by ID/creationism advocates to influence the curricula through the inclusion of ideas that have not previously earned standing in relevant fields of professional research -- that is to insist they be put into the textbooks before the science journals -- contradicts and undercuts this strategy. What's worse it does so in a field that should be most favorable to conservatives, as leftists are far less represented in the physical and biological than in the social sciences.
How can conservatives insist that the curricula must not be altered to appease, placate or protect the "self-esteem" of identify groups when they are trying to do that very thing in biology?