On Long Island, my sons 5th grade teacher earned $107k per year.. The special ed teacher in the same classroom earned $117k. (They are public employees and the salaries are public record and posted online)
The idea of the poor underpaid overworked teacher is a teachers union myth, at least around here. ( And we still have to send in cases of tissues and wipes every couple of months)
I started at 28K in Mississippi as a 1st year HS teacher. Now, with a master’s (an MA in Eng., not a MAT) and 10 years exp. in a SC HS, I’m almost to 45K.