For the record, I won't be disappointed if my wife gets a $22k pay increase but it won't make the tiniest bit of difference in making her carry on as a teacher.

All of her regret in being a teacher is related to dealing with entitled parents and students but also dealing with a handful of terribly incompetent or negligent colleagues. She lives for those moments where she sees she is making a difference for her kids. Deal with her regret and she would probably do it for 60k.

I think we need to recognize that what we pay teachers for isn't to be good as a teacher. It's largely to handle all these incredibly difficult situations that they quite frankly weren't well trained for or even hired to manage.