[djoldman]

Oh for sure. Many people are surprised to learn how much more public teachers make than private teachers :)

A ton of details that medians aren't showing.

I was just mentioning why folks may be on different sides here. We should at least be talking about the same thing.

If it's a "they deserve" conversation, that's very different than others.

[tptacek]

I think people can reasonably go back and forth about whether they should be more compensated, but I don't think there's a reasonable conversation to have about teaching not being a well-compensated career path. I know this surprises a lot of people.

(My mom is a retired CPS teacher.)

[djoldman]

I assume the CTU came up a lot at the dinner table, haha.

Shrug clearly teachers are paid more than the median wage. There isn't much to argue there.

Modeling wage/salary is pretty straightforward for the majority of jobs (weighted by number of people working the job). There really aren't too many surprises.

Monopoly/Oligopoly union power, licensing, labor supply, regulatory/compliance restrictions/barriers, and product/service output value are pretty much most of it?

[tptacek]

Hell if I know. This thread is based on a claim that people go into nursing and teaching out of altruism, and not for compensation. I'm pretty sure that's not true. Both are well-compensated, safe paths to a comfortable lifestyle and, especially for teaching, to a secure retirement.

No teacher is going to tell you they're not altruistic, and that they're in it for the money. They see themselves as doing good, and I agree that they are. But that's not what drives entrance into those fields.