Per capita out-of-pocket is about $800, barely changing that number. The top 5% spend an average of $8000[0], which still puts compensation ahead of countries l

Per capita out-of-pocket is about $800, barely changing that number. The top 5% spend an average of $8000[0], which still puts compensation ahead of countries like New Zealand, Norway, Japan, Sweden, and Finland, and that's not even accounting for the higher income taxes many of these countries have. As for retirement, most public school systems have extremely generous pensions. Illinois, for instance, has over ten thousand former employees with six figure pensions - not just administrators, but teachers, too. Do you have any evidence American teachers work harder than teachers in other OECD countries? For instance, US class sizes are just under the OECD average, although this is skewed by China's unusually large class sizes, at about the middle of the pack and behind countries such as Japan, Germany, France, and Australia, and the countries with smaller class sizes aren't that much smaller. [1] [0]: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-expenditures-vary-across-population/ https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-... [1]: http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/EDIF%202012--N9%20FINAL.pdf http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/EDIF%2020...