The core message of the column makes perfect sense. Expensive technology and boutique classrooms don't improve student performance without great teachers. Jus

The core message of the column makes perfect sense. Expensive technology and boutique classrooms don't improve student performance without great teachers. Just like a business, you can't buy excellence with furniture and computers - you can only hire excellence with great people. I would fully support tripling teacher pay in general, with merit-based payscales and greater accountability. Find the money by changing the student-teacher ratio and getting rid of expensive technology in the schools. Where would you rather have kids go to school - in a large classroom taught by Richard Feynman or Bucky Fuller, sitting at wooden desks with a blackboard; or in a small intimate setting with iPads and Cisco Telepresence systems, but taught by Gladys from the DMV?