Most people would not say that - only people like you with little perspective would say something like that. Yes we do spend higher than the national average and we also are #1 so not much higher to go within the US. Our schools were picked randomly for testing and some were rural some were suburban and some were urban. Singapore only has urban schools and a highly educated population.
I think our ROI in education is doing well for our state.
I'm not one to encourage bureaucracy and add more weight to school budgets but.................
What if we assigned a teacher who had 20 years in the profession to monitor, instruct and critique new and existing educators. After four/five years in collage a teacher is thrown into the snake pit of a classroom. Could an apprenticeship be an answer? Certainly there are teachers who have reached a level and an age that would be qualified to act as mentors for other teachers.