The feds should stay out of education - leave it to the states and local communities.
Yep; same goes for the "important" issues I listed.
It is not necessary for the feds or the locals to do much to attract top science and math teachers. Simply allow the market to set the salaries instead of the teachers union and the seniority system. If teachers would contract for their salaries on an annual basis, there are plenty of top science and math majors in other fields who would love to teach. When I left the engineering profession and took a pay cut to go into teaching I was approached by several engineers who said they wished they could afford to do the same.
With better (professional) teachers who have real world experience, the number of kids taking math and science would grow simply because they would find that there are jobs and good fellowship in these fields, and not overworked and underpaid geeks struggling to make a living like the left minded teachers tell them.