Or a full federally controlled school system would mandate that you had to have text books that taught creationism. Despite the Texas lock in I never had a biology text book that mentioned creationism. The local school board or state school board decided that you would use those text books because they were the cheapest. We elect our school board here, I don't know how it worked where you were. The more control localities have in the educational system the more likely, not less, that the values of the community will be represented in the classroom. I'm fine with people in Alabama learning creationism as long as it means people in Oregon will never have to.
"My state works, fuck everyone else." Trump won Alabama by 28%. The community will is definitely being represented in the classroom. That's probably why it hasn't really changed since George Wallace was governor - when a pedophile can only lose by 20,000 votes there's some issues with the community. No matter how bad you think it is, most of the country leans towards the middle. It's the fringe you need to worry about. Making the fringe subject to the majority is rarely a bad thing.