Teachers are the most important school-level factor in student success--but as any parent knows, all teachers are not created equal. Reforms to the current quite cursory teacher evaluation system, if done well, have the potential to remove the worst-performing teachers and, even more important, to assist the majority in improving their craft. However, the US educational system often cannibalizes its own innovations, destroying their potential with a steady drip of rules, regulations, bureaucracy, and accommodations to the status quo. Because that status quo sets an unacceptably low bar for teaching quality, missing this opportunity now means new generations of students may suffer mediocre--or worse--classrooms. (Contains 7 notes.)