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A couple of areas that cost a lot more nowadays are all of the computer access and supplies, and the aforementioned special ed and LD support. A woman I worked with pulled her kid out of the $20,000 private school (washington DC prices) and put him in public school because they could give him the support he needed. He ended up going to a decent college, so in his case it worked.
As far as teacher's salaries goes, I know teachers are not as well-compensated as they should be. My mom had 25 years of service In Montgomery Co. Md, which is considered one of the top counties in the Nation. She had her master's and had a so-so wage, but a lot less then she would have had in the private sector. She was also a team leader at her school so she had administrative work as well. My sister also has her master's in education and now teaches out in Tucson. My stepmother was an elementary school principal and when she retired in 1995 she was making around $80-$90,000 a year. Sounds pretty good until you realize that she was effectively running a small corporation. She had dozens of teachers, support staff, administrators, custodians, and other employees to manage. She also had hundreds of students to attend to. On top of that is hundreds of parents putting pressure on the school. Then you add in the bureaucracy of the county administration that hamstrings your every move. The stresses are gender, wealth, classism and ethnicity on the school system. Then on top of all that you could not fire anyone. You have a bad employee, there are ways of getting rid of them. How do you get rid of a bad student? Or lousy parents? Being a principal really sucks. don't forget the 60-70 hours a week of work, plus the unpaid time for PTA meetings, school events, and other issues like county council issues. Pay teachers and administrators what they are worth. The love of teaching starts the process, the low pay insures that what is left after several years is a lot of incompetent teachers who cannot get a private sector job.
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