If it's a Manhattan Institute study on teachers, it'll be missing a few things. Our HIGHEST (with PHD and additional credits) salaries are around $50,000 here. For hourly salaries, one might be using just teaching time. There is additional preparation time too (some of which may be included in CONTRACT TIME). Contract time is 40 hours a week here while teaching time is different. The OUTSIDE time is hard to factor in, but if it were to be factored in, the hourly salaries would be much lower.
The simple matter is teachers aren't dirt poor. BUT they aren't rich either. NO teacher at our school is the main wage earner in a home unless he/she is single. That is another thing to take into account--many teachers are co or secondary wage-earners. Nonetheless, I can't get much of a housing loan (if any) on my salary alone.
A simple measuring stick--if teachers are indeed paid so much, there'd be more males entering the profession (like me) and more would not leave for more lucrative positions.
Teachers are not poor. They work 9 months of the year, which gives them the opportunity to work seasonal jobs during the summer or stay home with their families. Most working people don't have those options. Moreover, they have excellent pensions and benefits. Here in Ohio, a teacher can retire, start collecting a pension, and then go back to work in another district while still collecting pension benefits.
Teachers have no right to cry poverty. They know how much their profession pays before they go into it. If someone can't afford to live on a teacher's salary, he should go into another profession.
Public school teachers are paid by the taxpayers. But taxpayers can only afford to pay so much money for public education. Property taxes have become very high in many parts of the country because of tax increases that have been repeatedly passed to benefit public schools. At some point, taxes are going to become so high that people are going to start losing their homes. But, hey, as long as the teachers get to earn a hefty salary for 9 months' work, who cares how burdensome these taxes become?