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Teaching IS an incredibly easy ass job. I just don't buy that it's hard. I used to work with people with severe developmental disabilities and I would spend six months just teaching them just one life skill like doing laundry. That was hard. I home schooled my nephew who was a problem child. That was very simple in comparison. That's when I learned that teaching is not that hard.

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Thanks for quoting your anecdotal "evidence" as data. Please try teaching in a classroom with 30 clones of your "problem child" nephew every day, keeping them in line, communicating with parents and administration and having them pass a state mandated test in March and the let us know how "easy" it is. You really are absolutely clueless.

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If being a teacher is so hard and they are so valuable then why is there a surplus of teachers when they get paid so little? They get paid what their worth. In fact, the market says they get payed more than they are worth, hence the surplus.

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10 years ago there was a teacher surplus. Now there is a definite teacher shortage. But again, it depends on a) where you live and b) what kind of teacher you're talking about. In affluent suburbs, there is probably a teacher surplus in elementary school teachers. But you cannot tell me that in urban areas, there are people beating down the doors to teach high school math and science. There is a massive teacher shortage. Some of it has to do with money but most of it has to do with the fact that teachers don't want to deal with parents who whine more than their kids do.