Most of the teachers I teach with are at least competent to good. A few are truly amazing. I contend that if teachers pay was more competitive with other professions that require an advanced degree, that you'd have better general outcomes.

But what would probably increase outcomes better would be to allow schools and districts to expel behavior problems. Picking schools HAVE to take pretty much all students, but I can tell you that a small number of students have a large impact on student learning.

Your assumptions about accountants and programmers aside, I'm glad your sister is happy with what she has, I think most of us in education would like to both have the intrinsic rewards, and get paid more.