Part 2:  Yes, increased pay would help recruit and retain teachers.  But, it's not just the money.  Better working conditions would also help.  Much of this, I will say, falls on the parents.  A lot of children come to school with poor study habits, bad attitudes, bad manners, and simply do not value education.  This is a difficult thing to teach.  Teachers are trained to teach their content:  math, science, social studies....they are not trained to teach proper manners or how to study instead of spend hours on Instagram.  We only see your child a few hours a day.  For high school, it's maybe 1-1.5 hours a day.  We can only do so much.  If every student would come well prepared, have good manners, appreciate their education, and do all of their work, there would be no teacher shortage.  But, do such students exist?  Hammmm.....I wonder why private schools do not have teacher shortages?