State and district salary schedules continue to reward teachers for earning master's degrees and higher, despite the fact that study after study show no correlation between master's degrees and a teacher's effectiveness. The premiums shelled out to teachers with advanced degrees range widely, as University of Washington professor Dick Startz, (and author of Profit of Education) nicely illustrates on his new website.

At one end of the spectrum, Illinois teachers with master's degrees earn 43 percent more than teachers with just a bachelor's, while in Oregon the difference is only three percent. The problem is, such premiums are distributed to any teacher who plunks down tuition and earns a master's, regardless of that teacher's effectiveness in the classroom.