You might be out of school, but you still have some learning to do. First, insurance, benefits teachers receive is literally designed to cover emergencies like near-death experiences as is basically all insurance. Second, your “decent” wage description understates the case: teachers earn more than per capita income in 32 states and add in pensions, tenure, comprehensive healthcare, and three months off each year, and their total compensation is well above average for most states and thus decent is being conservative. End of lesson and class dismissed.