I think many people have a soured view of our educational system, and, sadly, those are the ones who voice negative opinions.
    As an education major I have been in many different classrooms through observation requirements for graduation and have seen many wonderful teachers. Granted, there are those whom I've seen telling students to "shut up" and "knock it off." These teachers seem to be the burnt out ones who've stopped trying. I'm optimistic about the future of our schools because of the quality of training I have received and the enthusiasm I've seen in my peers.
    Just remember, "The jar with the fewest beans rattles the loudest."

Not all teacher's unions are bad, well, not as bad as the NEA. They do seem to be a necessity though. I know that if someday a student or his parents were to bring a frivolous lawsuit against me I would want someone there to help.

We do this in University classes. It doesn't work. Most people I see spend 2 minutes filling in the "above average" circle on the scantron card. Even when the teacher is an imbecile. I like your other point though. More educated educators aren't always better. I've had a few "doctors" for teachers that weren't worth the paper their titles were printed on as far as teaching was concerned.

The problem with raising teacher pay is that it will attract more people. Teaching is not something that everyone is good at. Just because you can get a doctorate doesn't mean you have the skill. There is a big difference. Raising teacher pay could attract worse teachers that do it for the money. People who really want to teach, such as myself, will often take a cut in pay to do so. I have been working manual labor for a long time while taking classes to become an educator. When I take my first teaching job, assuming I do it here in Nebraska, I will go from ~$32,000/yr to ~$28,000 if I don't do anything but teach. That's a huge cut when a person has three kids to feed, but it is what I love doing. Sure, I'd love to get paid more, but I also want kids to learn from people who LOVE teaching.

There's premium content on youTube? I thought it was all cute videos of stupid animals and people.

No, in order for it to be a number it would have to be Brazilion. Kinda like Trillian is a person, Trillion is a number. Bajillian is a name, bajillion is a number. It's all about the last two letters.

No, it means he only eats veterans. Duh.

I've gotten viruses from my ISP's website. So even with being extra cautious about software you download and run, you can't catch everything.

I once spent an evening watching "Driving Miss Daisy" and playing Tetris on my Gameboy (original b&w). That night I couldn't sleep because everytime I started to doze off I saw Tetris pieces falling down around little old ladies drinking tea.