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At least half of the math teachers are complete incompetents and the other half have mostly given up.
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If we want better quality teachers we should demand the following:

1) All teachers should take and pass with a “B”, Calculus I for math, science, and engineering students. NO special classes for the education majors! They should sit in the **same** classes with the nerdy engineers.

2) Insist that all teachers take and pass the GED for high school drop outs every 3 years.

Yes, I know that most teachers do not need calculus for their subject,...but...it would mean that they don't bring math phobia and math incompetence into the classroom. And...It would assure that they had a high enough IQ to merit the pay they are receiving.

If you know a really smart government teacher, please remember that there is an equally dumb teacher out there in education-land, because on average government teachers are dumber than a box of rocks.

Interesting idea. The head of the math department at my HS “taught” senior calculus. He was obviously in over his head. Now, I think elementary calculus is pretty easy, but I learned less than nothing from this guy and I wouldn't be surprised if he got a B in calculus. The class only had eight pretty motivated students, all well over 700 math SATs and it was pure torment. He was a very nice guy, though. (The best math teacher at my HS was the a part timer, his “day job” was as track coach at St. John's U.)

When my wife took her masters in Elementary Education (so she could keep her job) I got to coach her with the math parts. She really didn't need me, but I had fun. The math heavily stressed stuff on obscure topics like combinatorics that PhD mathematicians I work with don't know off-hand, though a reasonably intelligent person could master the entire semesters material in a week. It was more or less job protection for teachers. My wife took the license exam well before she completed the course work and scored in the 90-percentile in all areas. She felt that she learned nothing of any practical use over the entire period (she was already working as a teacher). It was a complete waste of time, though I must confess, I enjoyed coaching her in math, though, she really didn't need me to.