Because there's no way to weed out under performers, the teachers unions block every attempt at doing so. So the system must be highly regulated and inspected to limit the damage that bad teachers can do. The weird thing is, good teachers are happy to be shackled to the same system, collective pay bargaining etc.
If bad teachers could be fired! then the money spent on inspections would easily cover better pay for the good ones. But the unions must be smashed first.
This is an argument often used by teachers to shut down debate, but what you forget is we have all been to school. We know what goes on first hand, everyone does.
So I hear teachers whine about their long hours, but I remember perfectly well that "teaching" consists of putting a video on then going outside for a smoke. For the same pay as the guy who actually does a lesson.
And this is why charter schools are such a sterling success? This is why West European schools are uniformly catastrophic wastelands compared to ours? -- This experiment has already been run repeatedly, there is nothing in it at all.
If bad teachers could be fired! then the money spent on inspections would easily cover better pay for the good ones. But the unions must be smashed first.