Teacher here. The low pay thing is a myth -- somewhat.
There are great disparities between individual teachers' pay. In my region alone we have a lot of teachers who only make about 24K a year (some make 22K) -- you're supposed to get tenure and a pay raise after 2 years, but the schools like to "fire" after year 2, wait a year, then rehire so they can start that process over and 4 years to tenure (which is shady, and I don't blame a teacher for going someplace else). We also have teachers who are making upwards of 90K due to senority and taking on extracurriculars (and they're the ones who are usually in tight with the union). The same is going on a the local colleges -- there are some profs who only take in about 50K teaching an overload; we have others that make a good 6 figures (for 2 classes).
This is of course, quite ridiculous.
For some of you, this may not seem like much, but the standard of living here is low, so even 22K (which was my usual baseline pay) isn't horrible if you're single or if married with a spouse that works for a comparable paycheck -- it puts you into the same social class as most of the populace. 90K is egregiously high; 6 figures puts you into the social "nobility" for the area (and many act like it too).
Teacher here. The low pay thing is a myth -- somewhat.
There are great disparities between individual teachers' pay. In my region alone we have a lot of teachers who only make about 24K a year (some make 22K) -- you're supposed to get tenure and a pay raise after 2 years, but the schools like to "fire" after year 2, wait a year, then rehire so they can start that process over and 4 years to tenure (which is shady, and I don't blame a teacher for going someplace else). We also have teachers who are making upwards of 90K due to senority and taking on extracurriculars (and they're the ones who are usually in tight with the union). The same is going on a the local colleges -- there are some profs who only take in about 50K teaching an overload; we have others that make a good 6 figures (for 2 classes). This is of course, quite ridiculous.
For some of you, this may not seem like much, but the standard of living here is low, so even 22K (which was my usual baseline pay) isn't horrible if you're single or if married with a spouse that works for a comparable paycheck -- it puts you into the same social class as most of the populace. 90K is egregiously high; 6 figures puts you into the social "nobility" for the area (and many act like it too).