for the most part voters vote on bond offerings, some pass and some dont. i would personally argue that teachers are slotted correctly with their pay for the most part. Until performance/accountability are brought into their world then I cant justify more money being thrown at them. I also have zero kids.
Regarding performance/accountability- that is almost impossible to measure, unfortunately.
Take 100 teachers from a high school I would bet 30% would fail in the private sector (be fired or riff'd), while those same 30% would carry a long tenured career in education and even become principals, etc...
Where does this stop...It could be argued that social workers deserve the same if not more than teachers, but are yet very underpaid. Also, social workers know, just like teachers what they are getting into regarding the pay. Dont like the way the business pays, move to a different business.
Lastly, there are ways for teachers to improve their income- stipend for bus duty, lunch duty, d-hall, test administration, etc...I dont know how many of my ex-colleagues would bitch about their pay but never showed up to make additional coin.