Some people think teachers are overpaid--I get e-mail about it all the time. Other people think teachers are underpaid. I get a lot of that e-mail too.

I was going to weigh in with my own opinion when I realized I couldn't, because I didn't know how much teachers make--or how much anyone else makes, for that matter, except for a few well-known CEOs and sports stars

I said to myself, "Get some facts before shooting your mouth off, Tamim." (I learned that from a teacher.)

Lucky for me, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) researches salary issues. I found their Web site, and here's what they report:

The average American public school teacher, kindergarten through high school, makes $44,367.*

Salaries vary from state to state, with South Dakota coming in last at $31,383 a year, and California leading the way at $54,348.

Is $44,367 a lot, or a little? I couldn't tell, so I dug up salary averages for a few other professions. Here's how they stack up:

Profession
Average annual salary

teacher
$44,367

state patrol officer
$47,090

assistant professor
$47,476

accountant
$54,503

architect
$56,620

computer systems analyst
$74,534

engineer
$76,298

full professor
$89,631

attorney
$90,290

family practice physician
$150,267


I can hear some of you out there saying, "Sure, teachers make less than doctors, big deal. Isn't that fair?" Underpaid, overpaid, it only means something in comparison to how much a person should be paid, right?

But that's a big can of worms. How much "should" anyone be paid? And how do we judge "should"?



Part II: What teachers deserve
Is any line of work entitled to a particular level of compensation? On what basis? Are there objective criteria?

I can think of three:

The amount of training needed for the job
The all-around difficulty of the work
The value of the product or service to society
If you use these criteria, doctors deserve tons of money. Their job requires endless schooling followed by a brutal internship...and they save lives. What could be more important than that?

Carpet installers, by contrast, don't necessarily need a college degree, although they do need training and practical experience. If they're good at what they do, their carpets look smooth and stay put--an important and necessary skill, but it's not saving lives. No wonder doctors make more.