It's all part of the District Accountability Law in the School Finance Act. School boards operate with a ton of built-in accountability to parents and taxpayers. The people of our district hold us minutely accountable. The state government needs to get out of this issue. I feel very strongly about this.
Teaching is no longer an attractive profession to college students.
They can't support themselves on the typical entry-level salary, especially if they have families. The rampant teacher-bashing we see these days doesn't help either. The pool of teachers today compared to five years ago is like night and day. The teacher shortage is growing, and it's serious. The competition is fierce to hire the best and brightest teachers, and other states are raising teacher salaries and benefits significantly.