Anonymous wrote:OP here. I should have clarified I was not raised in a US system and my kids aren't in one, either.
In my home country and places I've lived most of the kids go to private school. But the most expensive ones are usually the best, in part because they pay their teachers the most.
In other counties, kids with significant special needs or behavioral issues are in a different school. In the US, they are all together. Private schools can control it a bit but public school teachers need to deal with getting stabbed with scissors and things like that. So private school teachers accept a lower pay to not need to deal with that.