Here is another reason: The effective control (thru credentialing) of the K-12 system by unaccountable and self-promoting professors of education.
As I noted earlier (post #18), I’m a retired urban public school teacher.
And you are spot on about professors of education. They control much of public education through their worthless and contradictory “research”.
Some ed. professor publishes a trash report. It makes no sense in the real world. Nevertheless, it looks good on paper. Urban school districts latch onto it.
Then a few years later, some other ed. professor publishes his own trash report. This report contradicts the first one. It also makes no sense in the real world. School districts drop the first report, and adopt the second one.
“You must teach exactly this way! It’s the best method. Research proves it!”
Then a few years later: “Forget the last method. This new method is the best method. Research proves it!”
I saw this happen over and over again in my career. 🙁
(The trick is to teach the very best you can, while pretending to follow whatever fad is popular at the moment.)
Abolishing university departments of education and firing every professor there, that would be a HUGE step forward.
(Sorry for the rant. I probably had too much coffee this morning.)
Oh, and one quick addition to my post #27.
Abolish university departments of education. Credential teachers via their own discipline. So if you want to teach math, first get a degree in math. Then apprentice under a good math teacher.