made American higher education the envy of the world

well, they let you idiots run free and as far as I am aware, a whole lot of american children are dangerously dumb now. Like literally illiterate when they finish High School.

It’s making it hard for them to receive the full support that schools should be giving every child

Stop treating school as a fucking daycare. Your job is to educate the children in the subject matter you are responsible for. You are not supposed to impose a wordlview on them, especially if you doing so takes time away from the things you should be teaching them.