of course you like to quote 25k per year, because you must be one of the VERY RARE teachers.
The AVERAGE teacher earns 46K. Not fantastic pay but not 26k per year either. And there are certainly some great benefits.
The most recent American Federation
of Teachers salary survey found that
the average teacher salary in the
2003-04 school year was $46,597.
25k is only for the first 3 years of a teacher's work in a substandard school district.
I suggest you move to a new school district.
unless perhaps you were quoting incorrect or
misleading information from your union. Perhaps you should update them on the correct amounts.