Influence? Sure. I remember my dad organized a group of parents to push for improvements to math and science teaching at our rural school district. Eventually

Influence? Sure. I remember my dad organized a group of parents to push for improvements to math and science teaching at our rural school district. Eventually that included lobbying state legislators to support distance learning, so that a group of a dozen schools could use shared services to teach or access advanced courses. My brother got to realize that - he took Calc 1 & 2, as well and intro to computer science at a state university about 100 miles away, in high school. Passionate people with good ideas can always drive change.