I want to shake you and say wake up dammit! Let me share with you a simple, true, analogous story:

I was dating a girl a few years back who loved farming- loved growing her own food, had worked on a farm for about 6 months and really enjoyed it. She was going to college at the time.

A friend and classmate of hers was also a wild promoter of organic farming and good farming practices in general- moving away from industrial farming, big agriculture, etc and towards an approach focused on the health and well-being of the individual. This friend was always getting down on her because she wanted to become a farmer- she really had the chance to make a difference by going around and teaching farmers how to correctly switch to a healthier, greener style of farming. Instead of just having one organic farm she could promote hundreds and have a much more important effect on the world and really do some good.

She hated this mindset, and I suppose as a result of that so do I. There's definitely a need for people to campaign for organic farming- but far far greater than that need is the need for the actual farmers. The policy and the lobbying is predicated on the idea that this system is in place- without the subject of the policy, the campaigning and lobbying are worse than useless.

This:

Go into educational policy if you must, or better yet become a scientist, marry a scientist, and homeschool your children.

Is bass-ackwards. If your friends are going into teaching fucking great. Maybe your friends aren't going into it for the reasons you would- namely to change an entire system or make sure that their children are educated. Maybe your friends fucking want to teach people. That doesn't mean it's their responsibility to make the change in American education policy happen- that means that it's their responsibility to teach and to understand these policies as a teacher. They will, of a matter of course, have passionate opinions about the policies and some may in time come to think that it would be a better use of their time to help other teachers by becoming an education policy maker.

-But never for a second believe the the policy makers are more important than the people they make policy for. Just because someone can tell you how to do something doesn't mean that they're more important than you are. If all of the managers left my Engineering department there would definitely be some confusion for a while and it would take a bit to make right- if all of the engineers left, there would be no website within a week. Do not mistake influence for necessity!