From a science teacher:

Jonah,
The fact is, since the 1990s… the Christian right is increasingly focusing on battles it can win. You can go on and on about abortion, pass laws, have million people marches, send petitions, but it doesn’t matter because the courts are going to trump anything you do. No one listens, no one cares — you’re just fighting the good fight, and your opponents don’t even have to fight back in order to win.
On the other hand, you put 20 people who want to talk about an issue in a school board meeting anywhere in this country, and they will be listened to. The school board will listen, the community will listen, and you will be heard — and quite often win.
The big secret about evolution is how little it is actually taught. As a Science teacher, I would guess that most “teaching” about evolution is done by militant hippie-types and first-year teachers who don’t know any better. I’ll bet if you go into lesson plans that lots of instruction on evolution consists and asking kids to read the textbook for homework, videos to be slept through, and study guides left to be completed when the substitute teacher is there.