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8 months work,no weekends, uncountable number of holidays and tenure...overpaid for sure!

It also varies greatly by area. Our school district (SW Pennsylvania) has about 300 qualified applicants for every vacancy. The Carolinas and Georgia have less than three.

Average salary in our district is about $58K per year. For the Carolinas and Georgia it is about in the mid 30's.

Pennsylvania colleges and universities graduate (surprise!) about a 30% surplus of newly minted education majors. Many of them end up working in (double surprise!) the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and West Virginia.

Our local district hires some of these U-Turners-- they've gone south and obtained some actual experience, so they tend to stand out amoung the 300 or so qualified applicants for every vacancy.

you can see what your local teachers get paid as it is public record and trust me I looked up many of them around here and they get paid damn well.

50 grand is the average for them down here and that is good money down here and especially as they are only working so long in a year etc

Teachers sign a contract every year for X amount of dollars. They can take that amount over 12 months thereby getting paid when school is closed during the summer, or, they can take it over the 10 months that school is in session having a higher monthly pay but they do not get any money during the summer when school is closed. They do not get paid a years salary for just 8 or 10 months work.

Yes they do get a lot of time off, but most people don't realize that the time off is unpaid. They do not get paid for their 2 weeks off at Christmas, they do not get paid for their 1 week at Easter and they do not get paid for their summers.
If they are foolish enough to work summer school they get about 1/3 of there hours worked after taxes. I know this because my wife is a teacher; I finally had to put my foot down and tell her no more summer school, she could make more working as a greeter at the local Walmart and it keeps her in the Social Security System, most teachers don't quality for Social Security.
The reason that the system produces a crappy product; i.e. a well educated future citizen, is because of bad quality control. The tools for quality control are there, but they are not used by the responsible administrators.
Most school principals and higher administrators are ex-classroom teachers and have been indoctrinated to believe that every one should be a winner and they shouldn't damage their self esteem. Stupid; I know , but this is what the modern psychobabble higher educational system has pushed for the last 30 years. Self esteem is more important to them than performance, useless protoplasm might get it's feelings hurt and we can't have that.
Having said all this, I will now qualify it. I worked for a school district for 32 years; not in the educational area, but in the trades and maintenance departments. When I got promoted to supervisor, my first job was to sit down and read all of the Personnel Commission Rules and Regulations and Board Policies. I discovered that the rules were there, and they were very plain to any one who cared to apply them.
I started out with a department with over 80 employees and in the first two years I had to fire 13 employees for various disciplinary and competency problems, some of these employees had been working there for years, but previous supervisors were just not willing to put in the work to get rid of them. It takes about 120 hours of additional work; documenting, gathering statements, taking pictures, inspecting work, writing reports, special evaluations and counseling to get rid of one bad employee, most administrators are just not willing to do this extra work.
After you do your part of the job, then you have to take your evidence to your upper administrators and fight with them about a rightful termination. You get to listen to all of the excuses why this useless piece of meat should not be fired, he has a mortgage, he has a wife and 3 kids, he just needs more instruction, he is a nice guy, every body likes him. It's all bullcrap and they know it, they just don't want to hurt his feelings or they don't want to appear to be the bad guy. The school administrators apply this same psychobabble crap to all of their teachers plus they are not willing to do the extra work, it's easier to go along and get along than do the job they are supposed to get paid for.
The solution in my opinion is simple; no District Administrator, up to and including the Superintendent of Schools should come from the educational system. The system needs people who have real world experience, where results count more than the feelings and desires of the employees. I would suggest people with military or cut throat business back grounds for all positions of responsibility, people who can make a decision even when the decision is unpopular. The system can be fixed; but the problems can not all be put off on the teachers, the biggest problems start at the administrative level.