The Wonder of School

Being an educator(I guess that is what they call us now-a-days) I have dealt with the education system all my life(basically) and I have seen the different levels of education that is provided to people. Why is it that all the different states and countries have different systems for educating their children? Why for instance does California(which has some of the lowest scores in the country) have a complete and total different curriculum than Maine(which has quite high scores) Or better yet, why did I use the same text books in high school(in Canada) that I did it college(in United States)? Looking at education is kind of depressing because it really isn't anywhere near what it should be.