Don't be so disturbed, what you need to understand is that there are (at least) two Americas. There is the America of the East and West coast cities - the places connected to the world, thought, and technology. Think of them as surfing the wave of "new" knowledge.

And there is the South, the midwest - places far from the hyper-connected coastal cities, with all their icky culture and learnin. Many states in the South still insist on teaching "Christian Science" (lol!) alongside evolution, implying there is some kind of controversy.

The only real controversy is that actual children are allowed anywhere near these "schools" and their "teachers".