http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13kristof.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13kristof.html Pay particular attention to the McKinsey repo

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13kristof.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13kristof.html Pay particular attention to the McKinsey report results, which found that a teacher that is a standard deviation better than the norm adds $20k to a student's lifetime earnings. Two standard deviations gets you $32k, or $640,000 for a class of 20. Teachers' starting salaries are $39k/year in the U.S., but in educationally top performing places like South Korea and Singapore teachers earn more on average than lawyers and engineers.