[tstrimple]

I tend to think "good teachers" is a thing that doesn't really matter outside of niche 1-1 breakthrough moments. I know there are exceptions. Teachers who go way above and beyond, but that's not a scalable solution. A great teacher can make a difference in a handful of children. But they can't fix a fundamentally broken system. I tend to agree with you that it's not teachers that make a school good. It's the reputation and the parents who will move to areas based on said reputation. It's already selecting for parents who have the means and willingness to decide where they live to achieve better results for their child's education. They are invested in other ways as well.

Thus bad schools don't necessarily have bad teachers. They have a concentration of complacent or actively bad parents who drag the entire experience down for everyone. Throw in the bulk of special needs kids who fall on the public school system that is not in any way equipped to actually handle them and it's no wonder very few kids are learning effectively.

[mikkupikku]

I do think the impact good teachers have is relatively minor, except for the part where a good teacher isn't a bad teacher, and the damage a bad teacher can do is enormous. A young inexperienced teacher is almost certainly getting into the career because they want to help kids. They may become a bad teacher, the bitter sort of teacher, after many years of seeing little but negative outcomes. At that point, they become part of the problem and realistically the only way to correct this is to wait until they quit. Incidentally, high wages are more likely to keep bad bitter teachers in jobs they hate longer, while young optimistic teachers require less fiscal motivation.

[cestith]

Perpetually low pay sees fewer truly competent people going into education. It also means that mid-career people who are trying to raise families often leave for better pay and hours.