Unfortunately, schools until college are often antipolitical environments, as far as students are concerned. Students are set to compete against each other, in a way probably not very different from Einstein's observation in 1949 that, "An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career."
In fact, it is maybe a little sad that the best critique I currently know of on our educational system is not from a typically "leftist" source, but rather one which won awards from right-wing libertarians. <http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm>
But I don't believe that US citizens are frothingly anti-intellectual. Chomsky (and I believe Zinn?) comes straight out of the ivory tower, has impeccable leftie credentials, and he's often the most requested guest on talkshows like Bill Maher's. He's claimed that speakers who offer an interesting, useful viewpoint are highly in demand across the nation and attract similarly-sized audiences. (I suppose he's referring to speakers like Naomi Klein, etc?)
Tayssir