To be clear: I think teachers should probably make more, but I don't know enough about it to make a strong opinion. I just wanted to look at data.
According to [1], teachers in Tempe, AZ (a suburb of Phoenix where I live), teachers make $51,841/year of income.
First, we have to convert this to a monthly income (teachers work 9 months per year, not 12[2]).
51841/9 = 5760. $5,760/mo.
(If I'm being honest, I was surprised the wage was this high. That seems like a pretty good wage, actually!)
Converted to a 12-month salary (which is generally what is meant by "salary")
12 * 5760 = $69,120
According to [3], the median income for a bachelor's degree holder in the state of Arizona is $62,697.
Again, I'm not saying that teachers shouldn't ask for more money. They have really important jobs. I just find the idea of teachers being underpaid to be inaccurate.
Just for fun (I know a lot of you live in the bay) according to [4] this would be like living in Oakland making $110k, or living in SF making $140k. In LA this would be about $109k.
In IA (Des Moines), it's about exactly the same. $66k.
[1]:https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2015/03/1...
[2]:While some teachers certainly do things like summer school, off-season training, etc. as far as I can tell, the salary figures are for the 9 required months per year.
[3]:https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Location=Phoenix-AZ/Sal...