Quote from Pabst:
The average teaching salary in the U.S. is $48,000 a year. Not bad for a 180 days a year gig that typically includes health insurance and generous pensions of 75% one's last pay after 30 years employment. And that's the average. I can't find any data on the average teacher's salary at retirement but I'd reckon it's at least 60k a year. A pension of 75% on 60k? Nice deal. A self employed trader who receives a T-Bill return of 5% would need a million dollars in the bank to be at equivalency. And in my home state of Illinois the average teacher salary is 55k. That's including all the poor farm communities downstate where salaries are in the low 30's. A tenured 45 year old teacher in Chicago's suburbs makes 80k easy. In fact there's 100 teachers in Illinois earning at least $140,000!
http://www.thechampion.org/teacher/cgi-bin/teacher.pl?ssd=topteach&year=2005
that list disgusts me.
teachers should not make that much - especially ones in suburbs.