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Personally, I think it would be a huge benefit to our education system if more high school teachers had subject-specific doctorates or master's degrees (NOT degrees in education). The value students get from people with serious knowledge of a subject is huge. These people understand what's coming in two or four or six years and can put ideas in context. For example, "When you get into x course, you will learn more about today's process and how it applies to this other process."

Also, these people typically have a good understanding of what's required to get through a bachelor's degree in their fields, and likely have a much better ability advise students in a meaningful way about career options.

Compare to someone who follows what the book says and never or rarely goes past it because s/he lacks meaningful knowledge, not only of the subject itself, but also of its work environment.

ETA: IMO, there are serious problems in the American academic research environment, and one of them is the system's rabid focus on output and industrial ways of measuring "quality." But that is a topic for another thread.