Providing an improved education to the future generations is necessary to ensure the future existence of our country. This is not exactly a new insight. In a word, it's teachers. We don't have enough of them, they are not well enough prepared, and they allow classroom conditions that impede student learning. Teachers are not only the problem, they are the solution and, in fact, the entire ballgame.
Teachers are by far the most important element in the education system.
Despite decades of effort and many millions of dollars, no one has yet devised a teacher independent curriculum or technology that works for even a sizeable minority of students. Of course teachers need curricular tools and adequate facilities but first the well-prepared teacher must exist. Resolving important issues such as vouchers, charter schools, computers in the classroom, bilingual education, high stakes testing, racial or gender segregation, or even the teaching of evolution is just reshuffling the cabin assignments on the Titanic. One arrangement or another might optimize passenger comfort but the iceberg will still sink the ship. The ship of education is already grinding on the iceberg of a shortage of well-qualified teachers in most areas of the country.