re: How much would you need to be paid to be an American public school teacher?

I took a pay cut after being a teacher and coach in MS public schools for 12 years to move into coaching at the NAIA level. The pay cut was minor and the time flexibility was more than worth the $10k/year.

What most people honestly just don't get is the lack of discipline teachers are allowed to enforce on students. I read on this board all the time about how easy it is and teachers bitch all the time. This isn't the pre-NCLB anymore where you saw schools enforce punishments, expulsions, and suspensions...now, teachers go through a laundry list of work on their end to initiate a process of discipline and the consequences are far less. It's not the workload in any other area...it is the weak punishment of students. But, since NCLB we correlate funding based on attendance and test scores. Therefore, schools do nothing but teach to a test and do everything possible to max them out. Public schools are test mills.