The very best people to teach in Chicago are those who care most about how they are treated, who their colleagues are and about having the highest possible standards for their work. They want to work as part of an elite team, and can't stand thinking of themselves as civil servants. Money is important in recruiting the best teachers, but not nearly as important as respect. Public school systems around the country are working hard to drum up enough applicants for each teacher opening. Yet most colleges in the same communities pay their beginning professors less than public school teachers with similar credentials, and the colleges have hundreds of applicants.
College teaching is a high-prestige job.
Public school teaching is not. Make the teacher-selection process more public, more exciting and more selective, and more of the best young people will want to make the grade and become public school teachers. My foundation employs about 30 educators who travel around the country training teachers to use our methods in their classrooms. Most of these people are former teachers-and they take pay cuts to work for us. Largely because they believe in our mission, and they know that they will join an elite group of colleagues.