> That argument supposes that high school teachers ended up with that career by looking at all job prospects and picking the one with the best economic prospect

> That argument supposes that high school teachers ended up with that career by looking at all job prospects and picking the one with the best economic prospects. Not really. I'm supposing that people choose careers based on some combination of "I like this" and "I like how this pays me". Someone who can complete a good undergrad math program can probably make six figures as a software developer after a few years. They'd have to really like teaching, or hate software development, for teaching to provide more total utility.