the core problem, I think, (and I haven't had time to read that article) is that teachers are not paid enough. This means that fewer people want to get in which means that the systems have to be less selective about who they want in. You have to have those 100 3rd graders taught this year. You can't put it off. So SOMEONE has to be hired.
Plus teachers are given tons of extra panel and committee responsibilities. I'm not talking about how they have to get a certain number of education credits. I'm for that. But I hear my mom (public school teacher)go on and on about how she's had to do all this extra admin work and has to be on these committees that take her away not from planning and grading, but from actual TEACHING each week. How does that make sense? Plus they're putting kids with special needs (not wheelchairs, but things like mental retardism and autism) into standard classes -- with teachers not trained to deal with it. And before you go off on it, Fairfax County Public Schools is consistently rated among the 10 best in the nation (scored by standardized testing and students that go on to college).
How do I draw my conclusions? Well, despite all that irrelevant crap that teachers have to do here, the county pays 5-10 thousand more a year for teachers than most other places. It makes a difference.
Think about it, we pay starting teachers $35000/yr to teach for 6-8 hours a day. To do that, they have to spend many hours at home preparing. My mom gets to work at 8. She doesn't get to leave till after 4:30. She's there for 8.5 hours. Then she comes, and on the average spends 2-3 hours per DAY grading or preparing lessons. We're asking for more than 10 hour days for teachers and we're paying 'em phone center rates.
Well, how the heck else did we think our education system was going to turn out? The best of the best don't come to it because they can live much better working elsewhere.