Christians: How do atheists have such a strangle hold on our (American) educational system?

From what I gather from this forum and a few statistics I've seen, the majority of the US doesn't accept the theory of evolution. Apparently, eighty-some percent of this country believes that the Judea-Christian God is responsible for the creation of the universe and life on this planet. With such an overwhelming majority, how does "creation science" stay out of public schools? They've stripped it down enough that it isn't affiliated with any religion; it doesn't violate our constitutional rights of separation of church and state, so why has it not been taught as a viable alternative to evolution? Our president (and presumably many others in D.C.) starts everyday with a prayer and has regular meetings with the pope, so it isn't the people in power holding it back. So, what's the deal? Does creationism / ID really have no leg to stand on or what?