The academecians who believe this sort of thing are far distanced from our children in public schools and have nothing to do with teaching it at that level. It isn't overstating the case to say this at all.
Sadly, you are right about this. Demographically, science education sucks. Here's a spreadsheet done by the National Science Foundation not too long ago. For those who can't read Excel Docs, here's the highlights:
29% of those surveyed believe that all radioactivity is man made.
57% think that Lasers work by focusing sound waves.
54% believe that atoms are smaller than electrons.
51% don't know that the Earth revolves around the sun in a year.
37% believe that the Sun revolves around the Earth.
In the two categories that interest us, 67% have never heard of the Big Bang, and 55% don't think that humans developed from earlier species of animals.
The methodology is listed here.