I can't say that it was that prevalent. The county where I went to school spent more than the average on their school system. In the late 60s each of the three high schools had a set of punch card equipment and one paper tape terminal with one account on the GE time sharing service. The school system had one IBM 1401 which they used for scheduling, grades, and such. They got the 1401 as a hand-me-down when they county government bought an IBM 360.

Then, after I got hooked on programming, I tried to find a college where I could major in it. In 1969, there was one in all of the US - Stanford University. Everywhere else Computer Science was strictly an Electrical Engineering offshoot. After Stanford rejected me, I ended up majoring in business and taking computer courses on the side.