Teachers--by which I mean the rank and file, not the bureaucrats--don't get nearly the credit they deserve.

I looked up some numbers on public education costs. Since the early 1960s, overall costs per student have tripled in constant dollars, corrected for inflation.

In that time, also in constant dollars, teacher salaries went up by a factor of about fifty percent.

When my kids went to middle school, teachers routinely made up for supply shortages and such out of their own pockets. Same for helping students who couldn't afford some field trips and things. Sometimes we donated extra above and beyond our own kid's needs to help cover the rest.

I don't know where the hell all that money is going. I guarantee it ain't getting down into the trenches.