The problem is that a teacher's salary is weighted more towards the tail end of their career than most other professions. In my high school, we had gym teacher

The problem is that a teacher's salary is weighted more towards the tail end of their career than most other professions. In my high school, we had gym teachers who had been there for 30 years earning well over a $100K. And we had an ingenious (new) Math teacher earning $40K. Over his career, the new Math teacher will probably earn reasonably well (especially when you take into account the extraordinarily generous pension and benefits, 3 months of vacation time a year, etc). But, the first 10 years (which is probably the time of his life that he's getting married, having young kids, trying to buy a house, etc) are going to be pretty tough.