Teachers paid less than other professionals

Portside -In the last two decades, the average weekly wages of public school teachers, adjusted for inflation, have decreased, while the weekly wages of other college graduates have risen.

That's according to an analysis by Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank supported partially by teachers' unions. The teacher weekly wage penalty reached a record 21.4 percent in 2018.

Teachers do get better benefits than other college-educated workers—but even after factoring those into the analysis, the total teacher compensation penalty was 13.1 percent in 2018.

"We think the eroding teacher compensation is making it harder to attract people into teaching and to retain teachers, and this is bad for students and our nation," said Lawrence Mishel, a distinguished fellow at EPI and a co-author of the report.