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Simple answer, if they did that they wouldn't have enough teachers. Class rooms are packed to tight as it is. You can't fire the incompetant teachers without breaking rules on class size. Nor can you find new, better people to work as teachers for the low pay and less respect. [/b]
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Pay for school teachers, especially grade school level, is abysmal. In any other profession, a college graduate working 50-60 hour weeks would be paid much more.
There are two problems. One is that most of the money for K-12 schools comes from the local level. Many (most?) people see school taxes as the only ones they have direct control over. If they vote down the school tax, that's at least one tax they can make sure doesn't go up.
The other problem is the perception that teachers work short hours and only part of the year. My wife is a third grade teacher and I can tell you she puts in a lot of time in class preparation, grading and so forth. Also, it's true that teachers get the summer off, but that doesn't mean what it used to either. School goes from the last week in August to the second week in June around here. Given, that she starts prepping for the next year around the beginning of August, that's only six weeks off for the summer.
Given the amount of time she puts in during the school year, it ends up being more than a full time job.
When the country starts paying a decent wage for that kind of dedication, you'll stop seeing dipshits teaching and running the schools.