In your job, you have pay for performance.....right? Do the same thing with teachers. Break the unions and demand that the teachers perform. Right now, it's called dumbing down our kids. These kids are the future of this country......demand that the schools fix it.
" demand that the teachers perform."
Problem is in a lot of districts staffing is very difficult as it is. The reason they take bad teachers is because nobody else wants the job. A lot of NC schools are like this. Upping the bar will just mean empty classrooms. It is a spectacularly complex problem that will take a generation of good leadership to solve.