It is critical to any nation to have sufficient number of highly qualified teachers.
The National Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics released a report which indicates that of 23,000 teachers of high school physics, only one-third have a major in physics or physics education. The task forces urges physics departments and colleges of education to”recognize that they have a responsibility for the professional preparation of physics teachers.”
As long as industry has the ability to pay people who major in physics two to three times more than schools can afford to, we will have a shortage of qualified people who are teaching science or math. Expecting people who paid $14,000 or more per year for their college education to go into education for the glory of working in schools, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.