Educators, legislators, parents, and the general public all seem to agree on one thing: the quality of education delivered to a student has more to do with the quality of the classroom teacher than any other factor. Yet, the quality of classroom teaching in America has not improved one iota over the past 50 years. As a matter of fact, in a study conducted by the Milken Family Foundation, principals reported that the quality and quantity of teacher applicants in their schools has declined and that they expect the decline to be more dramatic over the next five years. It's time to look at the teacher crisis and examine why fewer and fewer academically able candidates choose teaching as a career. We believe teaching has to be reinvented and made into a real profession, similar to medicine and law. The most important component in the professionalization of teaching is the creation of a career ladder-a multi-tiered structure in which different teachers have different job descriptions and responsibilities.