> This isn't a knock on your culture: the US is at a point where a stabucks barista part-time is paid more than some schoolteachers.
I don't think this is meaningfully true. I found a resource that shows the average teacher salary to be $72,030 [0]. The average starting salary is lower at $46,526, but a 40 hour workweek at $20 for a Starbucks barista tips-included is about $41k. Here in Massachusetts, the average teacher salary is $92,076. In Mississippi, it's $53,704. You can maybe find some full time (not part time) Starbucks baristas that make slightly more than starting teachers, but after a couple of years the teacher will pull ahead. However, since the higher paying Starbucks jobs are in places with higher costs of living, I would assume that the teacher pay would be higher in those places too, so it's a wash.
> "We've tried nothing and run out of ideas!", as a famous American saying.
Ironically Mississippi of all states has experimented by holding back more poor performing kids instead of letting them advance to the next grade, with some success in rising test scores: "Boston University researchers released a study this year comparing Mississippi students who were narrowly promoted to fourth grade to those who just missed the cutoff. It found that by sixth grade, those retained had substantial gains on English language arts scores compared with those who were promoted, especially among African-American and Hispanic students." [1].
This doesn't disprove what you're saying (and there are some caveats to the Mississippi experiment), but there is definitely low hanging fruit to improve the American teaching system. Just because teaching is a thousands year old profession doesn't mean modern day processes can't be improved by ways not involving salaries/direct training.
[0] https://www.nea.org/resource-library/educator-pay-and-studen...
[1] https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/more-states-threaten-t...?
I'll admit "some schoolteacher" is doing some heavy lifting here. It shouldn't be that close to begin with when you remember that school teachers need extra license/acreddidation (so, more post secondary education whose costs run rampant) and arguably have a much more stressful job.
>there is definitely low hanging fruit to improve the American teaching system.
Sure, you can patch the window up and make sure it at least tries to protect from the elements. But we should properly fix it at some point too. How many of those kids would have not been held back if they had a proper instructor to begin with? Or an instructor that didn't need to quit midway into the school year in order to find a job that does pay rent?