Ed Glaeser does excellent economics work that often translates into puzzlingly disappointing op-eds, but this column on the vital importance teacher quality and offering a few ideas about how to get it is spot-on. President-Elect Obama has often spoken along the same lines as Glaeser in terms of paying teachers more, and then screening out ineffective ones more rigorously. Obviously, the devil is in the details, but it’s very important for the long-run fate of the economy to see some movement on this.