musicman:

Maybe there's another reason. In some professions, everybody knows who deserves more money than their peers. Insurance salesmen and left handed relievers come to mind. Their outcomes are discrete and measurable.

But not every profession by a long shot. It's just as hard to objectively measure a good surgeon from a mediocre one as it is to compare teachers, I'd bet, yet everyone "knows" who the best docs are in most cities.

How can anyone discern a good teacher from a bad or middling one? I mean in a measurable way that could be tied to compensation. So much depends on the students and their parents, and the culture we all swim in. Further, parents expectations differ. The very defination of "good" probably couldn't be agreed upon.

Can we say the v (voucher) word? What if every parent sent his/her kids and money to a school they could choose? Wouldn't "good" teachers start to get competed for? Wouldn't bad ones find other lines of work? Nobody would have to test the little snowflakes to find out who the "good" teachers or schools were. The market would tell them.