How to lose elections 101 is exactly right
And the shame is that it could have been fixed so easily
"The client of the public school is not the parent, but the entire community, the public,"
vs
"The client of the public school is not the parents alone, but the entire community, the public,"
I could argue that second statement on a firm foundation.
My cousin's family home-schooled their six kids. HIs wife did the teaching and was vocal to me about how her kids didn't need to know any advanced math or any science beyond the bare minimum her state required. And was also vocal that her kids didn't need to be prepared for college because they weren't going to college.
I was afraid to ask her what her position was on teaching history since I'd already offended her by asking her about little she was teaching her kids about math and science.
Frankly, you can't run a school system by catering to what a parent thinks because a parent could think just about anything imaginable.
You can't even run it based solely on parents alone because I'm sure there's places where the parents are Amish, or Muslim, or Trumpists, and could all agree with each other on what to teach their kids and come up with some curriculum which wouldn't prepare them for life outside their community.
There's not a state in the union which doesn't have the state setting up some sort of standards for schools based on what is best for the public.
So schools in the modern era have always been a blend of public interests and parent input.