I honestly can't believe a thread like this exists. I mean seriously, how is even a single person arguing that we shouldn't strive to have the best teachers available? That doesn't always entail more money, but it should always be the goal and better pay will help.
Now I hope to clarify a few things. First of all, get rid of the dream that "brilliant" scientists will ever be teaching your kids at a high school level or lower. This is really just a pipe dream. As a self-proclaimed member of that group, I choose to teach but it is and always will be at a college level. And that has little to do with pay and more to do with the fact that brilliant scientists want to be SCIENTISTS and to be a researcher you don't work at a high school. Same is true for many disciplines in "education" because teaching at a high school level means you don't get to do the very thing in that field which interests you. I bet PH would agree that he does not have great interest in teaching high school sociology because he enjoys doing research as part of his job (could be wrong). In fact, if you look at my pay history you would see I have consistently turned down money to be in my profession. After 4 years at Wake, 5 years of 70+ hour weeks as a graduate student culminating in a Ph.D. in Pathology, and 3 full years of 70+ hours as a post-doctoral researche I still barely made more than some of the starting teacher salaries being thrown about on this thread. I now make well above that, in the interest of full disclosure, but if money were a motivating factor I would have gone to industry where I'd make more, work less, and have way less stress. Why didn't I? Because I wanted to teach and do independent scientific research. Pointing to increasing pay is an easy way out for our educational crisis but I don't think it is the biggest hurdle we face.
The real problem with teachers, IMO, is that the profession does not receive the respect it deserves. The profession of teaching isn't respected or revered to the same level as many other professions it should be more revered than. The example of lawyers put forth on this thread is perfect. Lawyers serve a purpose in society but if Person A is a lawyer then people view their job, and that person, with more respect than Person B who is a teacher. Same is true for many professions. There is no good reason for that but society dictates it so you naturally have people who may be on the fence about teaching that don't go into because let's face it most people don't want to work for lower pay AND lower respect than they feel they deserve. As an intellectual, I hold all my prior teachers in very high regard because I know I wouldn't be where I am now without their instruction. My intellect is what propels me now but it is the knowledge and skills they taught me which allow me to fully utilize my intellect. The same is true for everybody else in the world and yet teachers still don't get the respect they deserve. The point of all this rambling is that the solution isn't about pay, it is about respect. Part of proper respect is proper compensation but our society does not respect teaching/education the way it should and that is what is killing us now. I am not sure how to fix that but a start is stopping statements like "teachers don't need be super smart, just intelligent enough to teach algebra". For shame
