Fair enough. I concede that such places are on the left of the mainstream American political spectrum, I just deny that said spectrum is very broad since most positions on it share the premise of liberal capitalism.
I think we'd also both agree that the NYC DoE goes on the "just dumb" list for this, even if it is (thankfully) just for standardized tests and not for classroom use.
EDIT: This isn't directly related to the DoE issue, but I liked your point about (natural) science worship. Incidentally, I essentially agree with that analysis of the atheism of the "new atheists," despite being an atheist myself.
From the thread on your religion essay: