> Is there a surplus of quality teachers in the US?

There must be a surplus, at least of qualified teachers, if not quality ones. Otherwise how do we find enough people with a master's degree willing to take 45K a year to teach 25-30 rambunctious kids all day long? It baffles me that we still manage to find people willing to enter the career field, frankly.

Rural school districts have begun importing teachers from the Philippines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSmtbSYE8pg

Over there you can find educated people who are willing to work in Seely, MT for 30 kUSD/year. On a J-1 visa, with no possibility to settle permanently in the US.

Good luck to all of us.

I imagine ot varies by region, but there are definitely more people looking for teaching jobs than there are jobs available where I live (my sister in law is a teacher and getting a new job is a very long process indeed).

Depends on the school district.

My school district gets an average of 350 applicants for every open teaching position.

There would be if we shifted funds from administrators to teachers. Like in healthcare, administrators are hoarding most of the funds and driving up the cost.