There are very few teachers who are scholars anymore. Most of them went into teaching because the college curriculum was easy and they wanted jobs in which being fired or laid off would be extremely unlikely.
If we want brilliant STEM students we need briliant STEM teachers. We are extremely lacking in the latter.
We used to have a saying:
Those that can’t do, teach.
Those that can’t teach, teach teachers!
Not really.
The infrastructure has been gamed in a way which makes it impossible, in many states, to use the talent we have.
In the Northeastern and West Coast US, a retired engineer who wants to teach AP Calculus--something he could do in his sleep--is disqualified because he doesn't have a teaching certification. That's a crime perpetrated against the next generation in order to insure that idiots who can barely do algebra continue to have jobs.
Part of the problem is that school districts do not / cannot pay people enough to draw them into education rather than working for Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, Lockheed-Martin, GM, Ford, and so forth.