drop pensions and health insurance, which most teachers don't pay one cent of, unlike the rest of the working world. Let the teachers all be part of a giant HSA where they have pay their own premiums.
That would save tons of money 'for the children'. After all, that is what the taxpayers are always supposed to sacrifice for, right?
I've been a public school teacher for 30 years. I've heard it all. The problem is simple. The American K-12 model is a socialist one. Think of it this way. The best teacher you ever had in your life and the worst teacher you ever had in your life made the same salary. That's right out of the USSR.
The college model in America is much more free market. A physics prof at Yale makes 5 times the salary of a PE teacher at Florida A&M. That's why foreign students want to study in America at the college level.
A merit program to reward good K-12 teachers and punish the bad ones would require the abolition of tenure and the NEA. Then, allow supply and demand to dictate salary.