What is the average salary of a high school teacher?

What is the average salary of a high school teacher?

Varies by state.

In 2002-3 in the US average teacher salary was $44,367. South Dakota had the lowest salary at $31,383 while Michigan California and Connecticut had the highest.

Remember that this is pay for 9 months of work so to be fair you might consider it similar to earling $59,156/year though many teachers argue that they spend their Summers taking college classes and CEUs so their pay is already annualized.

I have heard of public school teachers making as much as $80K/year but these were teachers in top schools who had PhDs and decades of experience.

From salary.com/2007:
The median expected salary for a typical Teacher High School in the United States is $49,632. This basic market pricing report was prepared using our Certified Compensation Professionals' analysis of survey data collected from thousands of HR departments at employers of all sizes.