The education community has known for some time that there isn't a direct link between education spending and student achievement. That's because student achiev

The education community has known for some time that there isn't a direct link between education spending and student achievement. That's because student achievement (as measured by international tests like PISA) is pretty much just related to the student's socio-economical background. Spending more on schools has little to no effect on it. Increasing educational spending, however, will indirectly impact student achievement though being (or not being) able to attract qualified candidates to the teaching profession. This is especially true for STEM fields. For example, let's say that a school district wants to start a computer science program (Intro to programming in MS, Programming and APCS in HS). Ideally, you want someone that is good at programming, current with the CS field, that has a valid teaching credential, and is willing to work 40-50 hours a week starting at $44,000[1] yearly (pay will cap out at $88,00[2] with 20 years of experience). You can see why not many good CS majors will decide to go into teaching. The school district will then have to ask some of its current teachers to teach these CS classes, usually as an elective in addition to their other "core" classes (usually math). They will have various degrees of understanding and knowledge about programming, different backgrounds and experiences. Increasing the pay for teachers will allow districts to attract qualified candidates for teaching, the same way that universities have to pay top salaries to attract the best coaches for their football programs. The nations that consistently top the PISA chart have some way to attract their best college students as school teachers. Teach for America is an example that attracting top college students to the teaching profession can indeed help student achievement in the US and that their 5-year retention rate (~15%) in the teaching profession that these candidates don't stick around teaching for long. Notes: [1 and 2] Salary figures come from my local school district's pay scale