Having teacher's unions sitting across the table from politicians they elected certainly doesn't help.
I would say though the quality of teachers is low, the students are being forced to talkle more earlier and we are too busy teaching to the test as opposed to actually teaching people to learn as opposed to what they should now, as if the Gov't were a knowledge dispensary.
We need to move a system that focus on core competencies early on like analysis, problem solving etc, and less on memorization. We need better tests and better, more engaging lesson plans and yes we do need to incentivize better teaches to encourage higher performing college students to not only go into the field, but take on some of the toughest class rooms in the worst performing schools.
