Laws hold evil in check, but do not promote freedom. Social institutions by their very nature do not desire freedom. On the contrary, they desire conformity to their particular view of reality. Society provides us with warm, reasonably comfortable caves, in which we can huddle with our fellows, beating on the drums that drown out the howling hyenas of the surrounding darkness. Goals 2000 is representative of what one should expect out of any social institution, a rhetorical view pushing to create its own best interests.
Society is coercive.
It shapes and molds individual behavior and expectations through rewards and punishments without regard to the best interests of the individual. Its only concern is its own preservation. Science, politics, and every other bureaucracy is as dogmatic in its belief system as religion. This of course is relativism, and relativism is supposedly the enemy of absolute truth. The paradox of education is that the world needs both freedom and truth to grow and survive.