It's not just a pay issue (although I do not want to under-emphasize its importance) but also of a professionalization and standards aspect. Both the Baltics a

It's not just a pay issue (although I do not want to under-emphasize its importance) but also of a professionalization and standards aspect. Both the Baltics and Finland have strict competency requirements for teachers, and national standards of quality. The US in many places is still arguing endlessly about Charter schools and homeschooling to allow 'teaching' the most woo-woo nonsense, and offer endless bloviating about testing batteries but nothing about curriculum/pedagogy requirements. Textbook publishers cater to opposing markets (California and Texas) and its just as adversarial as every other element of US society these days.