Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times tells us that it is a big deal if your child’s excellent fourth grade teacher quit–more than you might imagine:

[A] landmark new research paper underscores that the difference between a strong teacher and a weak teacher lasts a lifetime. Having a good fourth-grade teacher makes a student 1.25 percent more likely to go to college, the research suggests, and 1.25 percent less likely to get pregnant as a teenager. Each of the students will go on as an adult to earn, on average, $25,000 more over a lifetime — or about $700,000 in gains for an average size class — all attributable to that ace teacher back in the fourth grade. That’s right: A great teacher is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to each year’s students, just in the extra income they will earn. . . . Conversely, a very poor teacher has the same effect as a pupil missing 40 percent of the school year.