School districts currently spend $2.6 billion annually on maintaining a system of recruiting and hiring teachers who quit or fail. The 120 major urban districts are the primary locus of this teacher churn. The causes include the negative conditions of work in these districts, the impersonal hiring procedures which recruit and hire the wrong people and the lack of any accountability of the teacher preparing institutions for the graduates they declare "fully qualified". The cultural and historical reasons for low teacher salaries are analyzed. Salaries of superintendents and other school workers are discussed as morale factors. Suggestions are offered for raising teacher salaries.