Han wrote:

The counterargument is whether you'd want your kids to be educated by
high school teachers who make 40K/year.

As far as the hours worked, from what I see my kids do, it is a rather
consuming job teaching math & physics in Paterson NJ and similar
districts. Apart from the miserable shape those communities and kids
are in, the hours of school and after school efforts plus the hours of
grading and lesson planning would have exhausted me within a year.
Glad it's not my job ...

I taught high school chemistry and physics for two semesters and I can say
with truth that dozens of teachers are underpaid. Tens of thousands more are
grossly overpaid.