Science and social science literacy

In my opinion one of the most terrifying things occurring in the USA is the attempt to strip science literacy from our schools. With the recent controversies in Texas over textbook whitewashing of history, it's only a matter of time before the social sciences and sciences become a political issue.

SO why are politics and education so linked?

Science is science, the evidence says it right there!

...Am I the only person that views education as an important social issue? Am I the only one that cares that a single school board has sway over the education of an entire nation? Am I the only one that cares that religion might be taught in science classrooms?

Education can be used to indoctrinate people, and that's what they want to do.
Indoctrinate kids in right wing fundamentalist viewpoints. Since thet can't teach Christianity and the Bible outright, they disguise it as "alternative" viewpoints that have some scientific merit. Creationism is a great example.
We will pay the price for teaching superstition and ignorance down the road as we fall further behind the rest of the world. These people want to control, not educate.