> Teachers become well paid on a performance basis. Independent, local, citizen committees are in charge of evaluating curriculum and ensuring teachers are not incompetent or activists.

I've had the opportunity to lend my software/IT skills to my local school district during COVID for the past 6 months to help with virtual learning.

What I have learned is:

1. Lesson planning to meet the various requirements from the local district, the government (like a state-level education agency) and any other pertinent requirements from various disability related laws is difficult. I doubt as you say "local, citizen committees" being in charge would have any benefit. Many parents I have observed over Zoom are clueless about subject matter we are teaching. So no I would not have citizen committees evaluating curriculum. That is not something the public can do.

2. Curriculum is often developed by teachers in a collaborative manner (within the school, cross grade level, within the school system/district, and across the state), and consultants are paid to help design curriculum. While I have seen some consultants more akin to snake oil salesmen many have PhD's and >30 years of experience teaching. They know the pitfalls involved in curriculum design.

3. Teachers are put under a lot of stress- again from regulatory/compliance within the public school system, their state and federal requirements, along with teaching, lesson planning, dealing with parents. They are already severely underpaid. Many teachers I know in my district are working >80 hours week and making around 50-60k. So you should be careful what you say.

4. "Well paid on performance basis" With what money? Performance currently (right or wrong) is defined as growth in test scores on the same subject matter over time usually as checkpoints throughout the year with state-level testing at the end. I don't think this is an accurate method of determining a teachers worth. I've observed really good teachers (give clear engaging lessons) but student performance on quizzes/homework is bad- simply because the support structure at home is not there. So tying an already underpaid teacher to "performance" reviews is an antipattern. Teachers are already stressed- and I know- they stress on these checkpoint growth tests- and while they are stressing they are not able to do good work in terms of teaching and lesson planning.

5. Teaching is very difficult- you need to be able to manage students behavioral issues, be knowledgeable on the subject and able to present the subject in a digestible manner that keeps students engaged.

6. "ensuring teachers are not incompetent or activists." This is an HR problem, that can be solved with good hiring practices. Perhaps whiteboarding teacher interviews? Just kidding. Many schools recruit graduates as "student teachers" where teaching ability can be judged but also taught. Student teachers have an opportunity to learn what the job really entails and can be mentored. Kind of like residency for nurses/doctors. I don't think the public is educated enough to be a good judge of that. I think you live (Palo Alto?) in a bubble of other highly educated people so your definition of the "public" is just that, but in many other places this is not the case. Now I do agree there are internal politics (I've witnessed a lot of this good and bad), but again the public is not equipped to handle that.

> In essence, largely remove government oversight from schools.

I do agree somewhat with this. I have observed teachers to spend 5-10h/week on government imposed regulatory activities such as moving paperwork around on arcane poorly built state-purchased or internally developed IT tools. Other than paperwork I don't think there is a lot of government oversight on schools as you seem to think there is.