Jake, I taught math for almost 4 decades, and I'm sorry to say, but your math is far off. You stated teachers make $400 per day for 180 days. Jake, that would equal $72,000 per year. The average salary of PA teachers is %54,027. If you divide that by 180 days you get $300.15 per day.(Salary info is from teacherportal.com) That is quite a difference from $400/day that you stated.

You also stated that there are few jobs there that make a teacher's salary. Well, let's take a look a a few facts from The Economic Policy Institute:

(1) Teachers earn less than comparable workers of similar education.

(2) Teacher's wages have fallen behind those of other workers since 1996.Teacher's wages(after adj for inflation) have risen 0.8%, far less the the 12% weekly wage growth of other college graduates and of all workers.

(3) Teacher's wages have grown far more slowly than comparable occupations. Teacher's wages have actually deteriorated 14.8% since 1993.

(4) Although teachers have somewhat better health and pensions than other professionals, these are off set by lower payroll taxes paid by employers(in many states, teachers, and I admit I don't know about PA, are not in the Social Security system.)

No disrespect to any profession intended, but many who post here want to compare teacher's wages with those jobs that could be had simply by having a GED. You can rail on all you want about "overpaid" teachers, but if it is as easy and profitable as you seem to think, then quit your job, go to college, earn a BS, earn a MA, and "reap" the vast salaries and benefits that you feel we don't deserve.

A few years ago I was signing my 30th teacher's contract. My son had just graduated from college and was signing his 1st contract.

His contract(software engineer) was for $5000 more per year than mine,had better benefits, and yes,nice bonuses(anywhere from $10,000-$15,000 per year). I had the highest state test scores in my school every year for the last 10 years, and never received a penny bonus for my talents and effort. Gotta go now.....have a stack of money to count.