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The real problem isn't teacher salaries... it's the fact that the wage scale is based on time, instead of merit.
The real problem isn't that teachers aren't doing a good job... it's that bad teachers are virtually impossible to remove from the classroom.
The real problem isn't that teachers don't teach the basics... it's that they're required to teach towards standardized tests.
The real problem isn't that teachers are underperforming professionals... it's that they're the lowest-paid professionals with the lowest authority to direct their own efforts (which also does nothing to draw higher-qualified folk who are making far more in the "real world").

Add to that:

The real problem is that teachers are hamstrung by their superiors, the board, and the NEA to teach watered down PC dreck, and real learning is discouraged or flat out disallowed. The average teacher loses more and more control over their own curriculum every year, and more and more of it is being dictated by liberal idealism and politcal correctness. Any attempt to fight that can lead to losing their jobs.

This topic is one of my hot buttons. You are 1K% correct.

ITS THE POLITICIANS STUPID. Most people can't and won't see that. G. Bush and T. Kennedy foisted off the No Child left behind act on education and sent it further down the tube.

I agree to the entire summary of your statements. My wife, as a teacher, agrees. She hatest the NEA. She also gets frustrated with those teachers who really do not care and were the ones who basically got in because nothing else worked out.

If we got unions out of the picture. If there could be a merit based tenure system. If parents supported the teachers, things would be much better.

The real problem is that teachers are hamstrung by their superiors, the board, and the NEA to teach watered down PC dreck, and real learning is discouraged or flat out disallowed. The average teacher loses more and more control over their own curriculum every year, and more and more of it is being dictated by liberal idealism and politcal correctness. Any attempt to fight that can lead to losing their jobs. Some of that is true in some areas for sure. I've always had the freedom to teach how I wanted, in fact I have an absolute ideal situation--I teach in my community, have students who want to learn and who progress quite a bit, have the support of parents, and so on. It's actually a LOSS of freedom that I fear with all the negativity emphasized each year.