First observation: geez teachers in the US don't get paid "that much". In Ontario (province in Canada), teachers can max out after 12 years at > 100K a year, it

First observation: geez teachers in the US don't get paid "that much". In Ontario (province in Canada), teachers can max out after 12 years at > 100K a year, it's not at all unheard of. The teacher's union here is very powerful, for better or worse. I think deciding on how much a teacher "should" earn simply based on the time they put in and then compare it to another profession misses a valuable point - teachers can make a huge difference in the life of a human being. What's that worth to society? If a great math teacher encourages 3 kids to become engineers, then his salary is much less than it should be. I saw a post on HN the other day about a teacher who told an otherwise disillusioned student that he was "gifted". Simply by being told so (he wasn't giften in the traditional sense) completely changed his perspective on school. If he goes on to become a contributing member of society, a good father, and good role model for others, then that teacher is probably worth more than 70K a year.