Everyone thinks they can teach

Today's education system is more concerned with what we teach students than how. The big push currently is to determine whether or not it should be left up to the states to decide the curriculum taught.
As if No Child Left Behind (or all children kicked in the behind as my Ed Psych prof refers to it) didn't do enough damage to our education system. Now they not only want us to teach to a test that can never really determine how much a student knows, but they want to be able to mandate everything that is taught in the classroom.
Which, btw, is usually way more than could be effectively taught in a year anyhow.
The NSTA has a link to a very interesting article up today about the current demands being placed on teachers and their curriculum.
Since when did teach become more about how much we can cram in front of our students than about how much we can actually teach them.
The average teacher in the US teaches around 10 times as many topics as comparable teachers in other countries. Is is any wonder we're getting our butts kicked in the field of academics?? Instead of allowing for quality instruction on every topic we simply go through the motions and teach the kids so that they learn exactly what they must vomit back up on an exam and then allow them to forget it so that the next go round we have to teach it all again. I don't know about the rest of America but I personally want my civil engineers to actually internalize what they're learning about how to keep my bridges and my buildings standing upright. I don't care if they learn about photosynthesis (even though I personally think it's more interesting) We have to stop demanding that our students know everything and focus on authentic tasks. As nice as it would be to have all of our students graduate, go to college, and end up with a masters degree and a 6 digit salary (which they of course donate to the teacher who inspired them :-)) It simply isn't going to happen. Every student has immense capabilities, they're just not all in the same area and we can't hope to achieve quality education by teaching them to be perfect in every area according to the designation of a standardized test.
Iowa's just about the only state that has figured this out. And while Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are the top 3 education states in the US they're still suffering from NCLB. Shouldn't an "improvement" in education be based on the states that have the best? Rather than punishing them by threatening funding and teacher's salaries?
Iowa is one of the only states that doesn't have state mandated curriculum. This means that each individual district is allowed to determine what is appropriate for the students in their area. Which makes a lot of sense if you think about it because there are something things that kids in little podunk, Iowa need to know more than those who've live in the middle of Des Moines and have never seen a cow outside of the huge statue at Roberts Dairy. It also gives the people in the school district a sense of responsibility and a sense of pride. They determine what's taught to their kids and when. It allows for them to become involved in the process.
What I really want to know is when are the politicians going to start listening to the people who see these kids day in and day out, the people who spend their time, (and the good ones even spend their own money) to ensure that students actually learn. Why not ask the educators, the people who have experience in this area, what really works?