[oldpersonintx]

Your brother-in-law will go from working 8.5 months a year to 11.5 months a year, so it makes sense he would earn more

He will never be able to match a teachers pension with 401k though...he might regret it when he is still working and his teacher friends have retired

With expected lifespan, a teacher pension can be worth over a million dollars...zero chance a 401k will deliver half that for most salaries

[wetmore]

Teachers work (on and off the clock) >40 hours a week during those 8.5 months though, worth taking into account.

[Jtsummers]

Only 2 weeks of vacation a year and no holidays? Any professional who is currently employed and not in dire need of a significant pay raise can afford to be more discriminating than to get such a raw deal.

[jplona]

Summer breaks for teachers are much shorter than for students, especially when you take into account required continuing education and professional development.

[brightlancer]

IME, government teachers have at most 2 weeks of required work days during the summers: one right after school ends, one right before school begins. Depending on the state/ district, that leaves 6-8 weeks of summer break.

They also get more than a month of vacation during the school year: 1 week in fall, 2 weeks in winter, 1 week in spring, plus state holidays.

Even with mandatory continuing education (which many jobs require), government teachers are still getting a few months of vacation. It's not comparable to folks who have to work 11+ months every year.