Breaking Teachers Unions to Get Better Teachers in the U.S.

Education is not among the steps to get the U.S. economy booming again -not among immediate steps. At last, these are the conclusions Rich Karlgaard of Forbes Magazine, arrived. Economical indicators tell us that the first half of the 2009 U.S. economy will have no meaningful recovery. This is not good news for the education budget since education is only seen to have an impact in the 'near future' in this economical crisis. 

From 12 Steps to Economic Recovery published at Forbes and at the very end of the list:

"Pay teachers more, based on merit. The politically incorrect truth is that smart American women subsidized K--12 education from the 19th century through the 1960s. Since the 1970s smart women have had more and better-paying career choices than teaching the three Rs. The talent pool in American K--12 teaching is fished out. By SAT scores and grade-point averages, would-be teachers are asked to clear a far lower bar than are other professionals. If the U.S. wants better teachers, we'll have to pay them more. But it should be merit-based. To do that, we'll have to break the teachers unions." 

Did he say break teachers unions? How come private industry and other government areas are working effectively with unions and teachers can't.