My opinion is that the teachers should be paid more and people in the city should be taxed far higher than they are. I attended Seattle public schools K-12 myself, and the older I get (now in my late 30's with a kid of my own), virtually all problems they face can be addressed by better compensation. All the teachers I know are kind, well-meaning people who do their best despite facing an adverse situation. Teaching has gotten significantly more difficult since COVID. In Seattle in particular, high income families have tended to pull their kids out of public schools and put them in private schools, where paying upwards of $50-60K/year isn't uncommon. Because of the ways public schools are funded in the state, this essentially operates as a zero sum game.