We need to pay them as much as they can earn in other fields. We need to vote yes on school bonds that fund building maintenance and repair. We need to support the great teachers that we do encounter. We need to show up in the classroom and be involved in our children's educations.
I'm going to disagree with you here. I don't think the primary problem is lack of support from parents or society or pay (it's definitely not pay).
This little tool shows average teacher pay by school district in California. Teachers in my district (not an especially good one) average ~$69K per year. If you look at the list of 50 highest paying districts, there are a lot of teachers earning over $76K per year in California. Sorry, but when you throw in benefits and all that time off, calling these people "underpaid" doesn't seem reasonable --- especially considering those very low test scores.
I think we have to raise standards. Plus, the working environment has to change so that it's attractive to smart, ambitious people. I have a very talented friend who left teaching in disgust after ten years. She was fed up with raises being based only on seniority, which meant that she couldn't be rewarded for doing a good job (sometimes she was actually punished for doing a good job because of politics).
Yet teachers unions resist ideas like subject assessment and raises based on performance. I've heard complaints that allowing performance pay would subject teachers to the "whims" of principals --- as though no one else in the world has ever had to deal with a less-than-ideal boss, and as if this would never happen in private schools. I'm even more tired of this excuse than I am of the one noted above that rationalizes lack of knowledge.
