[johnnyb9]

I always thought a significant benefit of being a teacher is receiving a pension, summers off, government benefits, not necessarily pay. https://www.aei.org/articles/no-teachers-are-not-underpaid/

[bastawhiz]

If you can't pay a mortgage or feed a family, summers off and pension aren't useful. Teachers don't have equity like many other industries. They pretty much universally don't get bonuses. The mindset that teachers have something that offsets the embarrassingly low salaries that we offer them is the result of decades of politicians trying to justify cutting money from education.

[sershe]

Cutting money from education? Education funding has expanded massively over the decades [1][2]. With, arguably, nothing to show for it.

[1] https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/index.html#ch... [2] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_236.55.a...

[giantg2]

Considering the average pay was about $65k, I'd say that most states seem to have decent pay. That's slightly higher than the average pay in the US, and significantly higher than the median.

My state has good teacher pay. I know someone working as a secondary ed biology teacher making a little more than I do as a dev (about $90k; both of us have masters).

[jelliclesfarm]

Public school teachers belong to unions and have lifetime pensions. Many of them have their educational loans forgiven after a certain number of years of service.

https://laschoolreport.com/antonucci-retiring-california-tea... : retiring ca teachers will eat more than working school teachers.

[ForHackernews]

> Teachers don't have equity like many other industries.

What "many"? Are there any industries besides software and finance that offer equity compensation?

I had real jobs in a couple fields before I became a coder, and never once did they give me free stocks. I think one company you could use part of your pay check automatically _buy_ their stock at nearly market prices, which would have been a silly thing to do.

[noelsusman]

Equity and significant bonuses aren't really a thing in any industry outside of the upper echelons of tech and finance.

[fredophile]

Sounds nice as long as things like the pension are actually funded. Not so great if you worked for years of lower pay only to find out that your pension is being cut because your employer didn't put aside as much money as they were supposed to.

[aweiland]

Ah yes, AEI. A bastion of neutrality with no agenda against public schools.

[liveoneggs]

That pension starts well before 65 for many teachers. In many (most?) states it's based on years of service, not age.

These benefits are, of course, slipping away.