[raganwald]

Your argument mixes numbers in a manner that confuses rather than enlightens. If you want to talk about how Michigan's education ranks in the nation and about how Michigan's teachers are paid, you need to compare Apples to Apples. If they're 30th in Education, how are their salaries relative to other teachers?

Likewise, the ranking of 30th... Does that measure the teachers alone or the entire system? If it measures the entire system, how does the funding of $7,000 per student compare to other states? Maybe Michigan is actually doing amazingly well considering its funding. Or maybe not. But that should be the basis of comparison, not comparing their salaries to those of burger flippers in McDonald's.