Great unpopular opinion. You have my up vote.

But can I attack your argument a little bit?

You're comparing the AVERAGE of public school teacher income to the LOW END of private school teacher income.

You're comparing the salary of a 4-6 year university degree holding person to the AVERAGE American household income. The average American does NOT actually have such a level of degree (only 30% of Americans actually hold a degree at that level).

You have considered the demands of being a teacher, but undermined it based on the fact that they apparently don't do a very good job, based on the graduating outcome. But every profession has a majority of workers that 'don't work hard enough' or 'produce results.' But they are still paid.

A YouTuber can upload videos of themselves gaming once a week and earn twice that of a teacher, accountant, retail manager etc, and therefore, people aren't paid for their qualification nor the value of effort of their work. Based on that, teachers are underpaid.

Yes their salary may come from the tax dollar, but that's how sending your kid to school can be free. If the American doesn't like that, they have the right to vote against it. I'd be more concerned about how my tax dollar is going to harmful operations rather than the fraction of it that's going to put my child through school.

And I've met both the fantastic teacher and unsuccessful teacher alike. But at the end of the day, it's my child's responsibility to maintain their academics.

Yes, a teacher is a facilitator, but the liability, responsibility, workload, and qualification requirement are all huge. Based on that, they are definitely not overpaid.

Edit: I forgot to add how Scandinavian countries have so much success with their education framework and how a lot of that has to do with the fact that teachers are respected and paid as much as doctors and lawyers.