In practice, voters in many districts do have direct control over school boards and have influence on curriculum. Social studies (as it was called in my day) is generally where parents have issues. This includes sexual education, historical interpretation of politics, etc. What very young children are taught and not taught has always been debated in the U.S.
State Boards of Education do have a lot of say over curriculum, but when they venture away from mainstream curriculum parents can make State leaders pay a price. See my comments above on Governor McAuliffe losing re-election in Virginia.
I found your comment on Serbian parents wanting Serbian history taught in school an interesting thought. In reality, it is not much of an issue. Almost all our immigrants want their children taught an American-driven curriculum. In the example below where I mentioned that there our Hispanic districts that teach to young children a U.S. imperialist perspective on the Mexican War, this seems to be driven by progressive teachers and not Mexican-American parents. By high school, we are all exposed to these ideas. It's really a matter of what age to expose children to certain political, historical and social ideas.
Interestingly, you mentioned this. Republican and moderate teachers I know actually complain to me about this exact curriculum in Mexican-American dominated school districts. Young Mexican-American children are taught that their land was taken away and to blame the U.S. for Mexico's dysfunctional governments. Now this might be exactly something non-Hispanic parents would try to remove from their school's curriculum.
Our Courts actually decide matters such as this under our separation of Church and State.
I know a lot of teachers. They are not the intellectual vanguard of America that you seem to suggest. They might perceive themselves to be a political vanguard though. Some are very political and influenced by the progressive wings of their unions. Most actually want the unions to stay out of national political debates and stop bringing unpopular ideas into the classroom.
You're kind of full of shit because when you "quote" someone it should actually be something they wrote. That seems fair. As far as my "kindergarten ranting" (see how I used quotes appropriately), I think I did a pretty good job of describing how our more decentralized education system works. You don't have to like it, but some of this is just the way it is.
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