Try living in the south where it's reverse.
I think it depends on where you live. I only went to a CC school but I never had any problems with people and I'm pretty left wing lol. I had political and legal classes with discussions and the professors were always encouraging of people talking. Even one prof I had who was pretty clear he was a Democrat but he always was great about discussions and challenging people and I personally never heard of any bias unless it was his own personal opinion. As long as you had a clear view and could defend it etc. His personal philosophy was to always try to understand other sides and he talked about how when he was working on his education he had to read Marx, Hitler, etc and how it really helped him to have a more open mind etc. My main legal professor seemed more libertarian/moderate type of person and his wife was a Democrat who actually had ties to the national Dems like the Clinton's and McGovern lol. Sometimes he would tell his opinion about things with the law and honestly as long as it's in with the lesson and can teach something valuable to people and doesn't go against what is being taught than I'm not against introducing ideas. It really just depends on what's being talked about and discussed. But it definitely can help you in your own argument by understanding the other side. Me understanding conservationism more (especially living in the south and around conservatives all the time) has helped me with my own arguments. To challenge myself and my views and over time I've gotten more left wing lol and I try to do better with my arguments and opinions. Here in the south religion has really helped to **** **** up with the school systems imo over time but mostly the standardized testing has really f'd things up. Thanks NCLB! Smh.
As far as standardized testing mentioned in the OP it's not about whether or not students are learning. It's clear, to me imo, they aren't because the schools are so focused on beating test scores they just care about the scores and not actually learning and educating. I know I was lucky I had a great education imo and I hope we can change how it is now and make it more about education and less about meeting scores to keep funding for schools. The two shouldn't be tied at all because this is what we get with education imo.