How can I support principles of public education while home schooling?

I'm glad to find out other people are wrestling with this dilemma too.

Living the Unschooling Life

Phil and Christine over at "Living the Unschooling Life" write about this heartfelt dilemma in Personal vs. Political: Choosing my Children Over Public Education.

They write about how public education made a difference for them and how they personally value the principles of education for all.

My husband and I feel similarly.  We have benefited greatly from public education from public loan programs.  We both chose public service careers, though I left mine to be a home educator and now do volunteer work, part of which supports our neighborhood school.

We have amazing teachers at our local schools. And honestly, if I could have the teachers without the "system", teaching to tests, crowded classrooms, crappy food, limited recess and physical activity, icky physical environments, lack of air conditioning, needing permission to use the bathroom or get a drink of water, and all the other restrictions, and the sometimes negative social environments, I would consider public school.  But that's a lot of ifs.

Things have gotten better with more families with social and educational capital using our local schools.  And together, people can make a huge difference!  A part of me wants to be part of that change.  But it just feels like there are too many things to change in time for my children to benefit, and many of those levers of change require serious lobbying efforts at state and federal levels.

So it just becomes a decision of where to focus our energies.

How do other homeschoolers and unschoolers deal with this dilemma???