One Overall Solution - a bad solution

I was watching mid-day TV news. It's full of stuff like a six-year old being arrested for sexual harassment due to a zero-tolerance policy.

It strikes me as a good example of why one solution does not fit all situations. What sounds good for a federal election and gets votes may not apply equally well in every location and circumstance.

I've read that Europe's political fragmentation helped it when compared to China. China's Imperial policies were mostly good, but when China screwed the pooch all of China screwed the pooch. There was no province that could show a better way.

I think there is a lesson for us in the USA. If a policy is politically closely fought - why not leave it to the states? I rather have mixture of 50 answers, some good and some bad than risk one really bad policy. Over time a state with a bad policy could emulate another state's good policy - adapted for it's own peculiar circumstances.

Take education. We all agree it is important. We disagree on how to fix it. Why not leave it to the states to improve?