From a reader:

Jonah, “Average Teacher Pay” is one of those highly misleading statistics. It is a very high turnover profession — 40% of the teachers who began teaching this year, will be out of the profession by the 2010 school year. so there are always a disproportionate number of teachers on the very bottom steps of the salary scale. “Teacher Pay” also cuts out all of the guidance counselors, principals, and administrators who moved over to their higher salaried positions after starting as teachers. I have a Master’s Degree and 15 years experience. Working in Georgia, a non-union state, I’m making about $56,000 this year. In a strong teachers union state like Pennsylvania, I’d be on the high side of $70,000. My dad in Pennsylvania tells me about a high school principal, married to a teacher, and they pull in $168,000. I want to see the NEA try to square the cirle on this one with their members one — “Elect Clinton, and she’ll tax the rich” and “Teachers will be rich when Clinton is elected.”