While I don't disagree that we need to get teachers into the inner-city schools, you also need to understand the dangers of working there. My aunt taught in LA, her school was mostly children of immigrants (legal and illegal), she taught first grade in a building surrounded by barbed wire fences. She quit teaching after she witnessed her second drive-by on the way to school. Her two daughters meant more to her than possibly getting shot on the way to work. Can't really blame her there.

Then there's the danger of teaching in an under-performing school. You can be the best teacher in the building, but if test scores aren't high enough for a couple years the state might come in and take over. They usually clean house, hire a bunch of fresh-out-of-college teachers or go to Teach for America. This can destabilize an already unstable school, especially when teacher turnover has such a drastic effect on student learning.

There's also the danger that you'll get a class full of students who don't value education. Sure, you might channel your inner Stand and Deliver and Jaime Escalante those kids into high test scores. Or, 10 of your students might be looking for a place to sleep that night, another five or six are in a gang, one or two or more are pregnant, another is abused nightly, the list goes on and on. Kids can't learn in those situations, not because the teacher is some intellectual reject who went education because mom and dad expected a degree, they can't learn because their minds are on more important matters, like survival.

I don't doubt that there are teachers who live up to the old adage of "those who can't, teach," they absolutely exist, and they usually don't last long, either. I know this because I've seen three of them leave education forever. Two were educators that were plain awful. Our administration went through the proper channels and didn't renew one's contract and fired another mid-year. The third was my student teacher. She couldn't cut it and I refused to allow more crappy teachers into the profession.

In the end, I don't see a problem with being choosy if you're willing to put in the work when you find that perfect fit. Other professionals are choosy, our blue collar workers are choosy, hell, even our homeless can be choosy.