I'm lucky working with the DOD as I am making 14,000 more than I made in AZ. That being said, not everyone is lucky enough to work with the DOD. Out of all the teachers out there, my guess is that only like 5% of the teachers are DOD teachers. We are such a small percentage.
My pay was horrible in AZ. I lived at home for a few years, as a certified-paid-full time teacher, because my pay wasn't the best and then I had bills to pay. I couldn't afford to get an apartment. When I finally was able to buy a home, I had to have a roommate (because I switched districts and took a pay cut).
Prior to getting the job with the DOD I had given up on teaching in AZ all together. The state had cut funding and about 3000 teachers were unemployed. My problem was I was applying for jobs with all those recent grads. I was (at the time) a MA +30 with 5 years experience. A district would have had to pay me about 10-12K more than a BA with no experience. I was more expensive to hire. I put in over a dozen applications and I got not one interview. When districts are looking at the bottom line, they are going to go for cheap, not experience.
As for now, there is no way I could afford to teach in NC. If I went to the local school district I would take almost a 20K pay cut (the actual amount was 19,560). That is MASSIVE. Heck compared to what I was making in AZ, it would be a little over 5k pay cut. There would be no way I could survive. I have heard that most teachers in my local district, if they aren't married, they live at home or have roommates.
I don't know of a calculation that could show what teachers do to what they should make, but the reality is most teachers stay after their required duty day, they take work home with them, they buy supplies out of their own pockets. In my years as a teacher I have probably spent over 5k of my own money for my classroom.
Teachers shouldn't be working poor, and that is essentially what they are. Teachers should be valued.
But as someone mentioned earlier, until society changes their views on education (which I think would be a great start if the President and congress began changing their views on education), teachers are never truly going to get the respect (including financial) they deserve.
What I do find ironic is that Americans like to think that we are the "best" when it comes to our students coming out of school. That we are so damn smart. Compared to other countries, we are far from it. Japan, Germany, England have 10 times better educational systems than we do. Plus they actually value their teachers. I did a project on the educational system of Germany, teachers are considered high government employees and make and get what they deserve.
Our mentality needs to change.
With that, I have already created the next reality show. Instead of wife swap, teacher swap. Get a 6 or 7 figure CEO (who they always tend to have a lot to say about education but have never set foot in a classroom) switch lives with a teacher. One week in our jobs, their attitudes would change. Now, which network to propose that too?
. Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, etc...