How would you handle elementary school classes? Would you pay people enough to lure the math and science types away from industry and government jobs?
It's already that way in Texas, BTW. You cannot major in education. You have to major in something else, and then you minor in education to get the "how to teach" stuff. Even elementary teachers do not major in elementary education. My daughter who teaches 5th grad math and science majored in psychology with a minor in biology (or she might have lacked a course or two for that minor, she started in biology). Only her master's degree is in elementary education. By all accounts she is a very good teacher. Still given the students one gets these days, that is the attitude and background they bring to the classrom, even a very good teacher can only do so much. Disciple and behavior problems take up way more classroom time than was the case when she went to elementary school, let alone when my wife and I did. Plus there is the bureaucracy.
IMHO, schools, especially elementary schools are too big, and to tied to the district "specialists", the state "guidelines" and of course the federal "mandates". Then of course there are all the "judgments" of the various courts that hem in the school districts and the teachers.
I agree that gov't regulations, at all levels above school district, are a problem. But I don't think education degrees are nearly all they are cracked up to be. As for who would teach elementary, I would use an apprentice system and dead wood cutting. Let those who are good at it do it. I've taught everything from SAT prep to Physics to Entreprenuerial studies on either a teacher TA or tutor level. Not an education course to my name, and yet somehow, I manage to teach. And given elementary school, most adults should be able to handle the material.