[RobbyS]

There are always some very bright teachers who will go into teaching. . I am talking about the percentage of bright 12th grade girls who today end up in the public educations as compared with those of fifty years ago. Back when my wife started in college she had a limited option for fields to enter. Teaching lured a large percent of women who would have excelled in law and medicine etc. The cream has been skimmed off. To be sure, many teachers have high intelligence and would have been housewives fifty years ago. That pool has been tapped to fill the ranks of the women who went into the real professions. But many of these have also gone into the professions. This might include school administration, where salaries are many times those of a classroom teacher.

[durasell]

I agree with your point .... up to a point. However, I’d sum it up by saying — there aren’t enough good teachers to go around. And, as with any other profession, they go to where they can make the most money.