You were being taught by people who were the age of my parents. These people still had parents and grandparents who literally lived the pioneer experience of hacking a civilization out of the wilderness. The goal of the earliest education activists in the mid-1800s ( and other education leaders of the early 20th century until Bill Ayer, today) was to eliminate this influence. They have and are succeeding.
Then there is the socialist object lesson that **all** children who have from the very beginning of government schools have experienced. ALL children who have ever attended government schools learn ( simply by attending) that government has the power to take from the neighbor to pay for a service their parents want for FREE!
If children are trained to be comfortable with taking money from their neighbor for education, then why not social security, health care, prescription drugs, New Deals, Great Societies, college tuition, free transportation, ...even free entertainment?
Although government schools are funded by tax funds, when I was attending it was from local and state funds. Public schools through high school were funded with property taxes. The federal government played no part, with the possible exception of ROTC where the military provided some equipment, uniforms, and military instructors. Although the state colleges and universities were usually larger, most colleges and universities were sponsored and funded by churches, foundations and tuition.
The problem intensified with the creation of the Department of Education and the infusion of federal funds into schools for school lunch programs. That was the jumping off point for many other federally funded programs. Any school receiving funds for school lunches had to accept federal “assistance” for the other intrusions or lose their entire federal funding.