On the flip side, in some places the battle to reach children who are aged way out of grade and where neither parent or child is interested in the education part can be a daunting task. I wonder how many dissenters can claim that as an issue.
Clearly there are teachers who could be weeded out. But I am extremely suspicious of state/district imposed “accountability’ schemes that fail to consider the student’s obligation to the learning process. Sixty to seventy percent of the variability in student learning is related to factors over which teachers have little or no control.