is that the current structure in a lot of places (Utah and Nevada and Arizona are all like this) drives away the best ones. The ones who have other options take those options. This leaves the absolute worst teachers in place because they can't really be fired, since no one wants their job. If you paid teachers an attractive rate, that would, on its own, make it much easier to fire teachers, because there would be people out there who wanted to take over that job. That's just not true right now. So you end up interacting with teachers who aren't good because the pay sucks, so only two types of people take that job: people who love teaching so much that they're willing to put up with all the garbage, and terrible teachers who don't care and can't be convinced to care, and couldn't get a decent job anywhere else, but are safe because you can't fire teachers for sucking as long as they're not actively committing malfeasance, since it's impossible to replace them a lot of the time.