Science and education have both become (have always been?) politicized. Certain groups are incentivized to hamstring education at every opportunity in order to keep the churches full and the voters red.
The solution… we need to get those fuckers out of power. Voting works when voting works, but that’s obstructed and gerrymandered to oblivion, so… idk, break out the ol’ guillotine and start providing some free cervical spinal decompressions to our oligarchs?