Curiosity,
“…if they don’t typically work 45 hour weeks with only 10-15 days vacation per year, like every other profession? I know that educating our children is important, etc., but that doesn’t justify a $50k/year salary (not to mention a nice pension in some states) for working what would otherwise be considered a part-time job, if it were not in the field of education.”
Supply and demand: If educators indeed received “full time” pay and benefits for a “part time” job, then there would be droves of people breaking down the door to be teachers. We do not see this. Why?
A 40 hour workweek over 50 weeks in a year comes out to around 2000 hours worked. A teacher works more like 40 weeks out of the year, but puts in closer to 10 hours of work per day, which comes out to a 50 hour workweek. Also 2000 hours. So you’re essentially kvetching about 50*40 vs. 40*50.
And the pay gap between teaching and other professions increases quite a bit when factoring in years worked.