One thing about other countries and the US in terms of teachers is in places like South Korea, Singapore, I believe their pay can get closer to 150k/year and they actively recruit top seniors from high school to teach. They also only take the top 30% or so of the class to possibly teach and they also pay all their educational costs (Singapore). Have you noticed that no matter what school district you are in, you don’t really see ANYONE from say a top college or anything like that?
That, and teaching being a very very well respected profession in these countries makes the teachers probably much more effective since they probably have more power and wealth. They can also get canned and are evaluated a lot more.
Not that we can emulate that in the US at all with how wide the societal, cultural, economic differences with all the immigrants and natives here…but I don’t think this school thing is ever going to turn much better. There are simply way too many hands and pockets involved and no one has enough power to change things enough to matter. Also, as was mentioned, and I mentioned this before as well, some kids should probably just leave school since even “if” they graduate, they still won’t amount to much and any work they do won’t even need that degree. As I voiced before, you maybe better off just starting them on welfare as long as they stay out of trouble.
There is simply too much supply of labor nowadays.
I honestly think the “good” homeschooled kids are probably the best off now (assuming the parents or people doing it) know what they are doing.