[mod]

My best friend is a public school teacher, and his circle of friends includes many more.

I can wholeheartedly assure you they are not as deserving as doctors, in large part because their training is much less rigorous, the job is much less demanding, requires less skill/ability, and a whole lot of teachers aren't "good" teachers. Just like any other profession, you have good, bad, and mostly average. The average teacher does not deserve nearly the same salary as the average doctor.

[Retra]

Working harder as a public school teacher isn't going to result in more pay. There are probably a ton of teachers who started out as "good" teachers and then slowly learned it wasn't worth the effort.

[andrewchambers]

If there were higher standards required before you can tech then higher pay would be deserved.

[mod]

I can agree with that, if the higher standards produced better teachers and discouraged the dregs from that career path.