Why do school teachers make more money than college professors?

Because working with children is a hassle.

@Ame_Evil college kids can be children sometimes. very childish.

Um, I can say with 100% certainty that the professors at my university earn a great deal more than any high school teacher. In addition, they do their own research which can be a significant source of income.

I went to a State University of New York and my history professor told me his wife was a high school teacher at a local district (affluent district, as most Westchester County districts are) and his wife made more money than he did. I know in New York, at least with the State Universities, he is correct (as he should be as he is speaking from first hand experience).

The starting salary for a school teacher and starting salary for a professor are very different.

@gggritso: Research is rarely a source of income.

This is not necessarily the case in all states…I believe in California, the opposite is the case.

http://www.teacher-world.com/teacher-salary/california.html

http://chronicle.com/stats/aaup/index.php?action=result&search=Enter+an+institution+name&state=California&year=2009&category=&withRanks=1

@nikipedia I should have phrased that differently. My professors are involved in strictly technical fields, e.g. physics, materials research, etc. They work in very specialized labs and the university does not claim the patents that they file as a result of their research (I think this may depend on the area of their research). I know for a fact that many professors here earn significant amounts of money from this.

College professors engage in a tournament competition while high school teachers do not. This leaves most college professors to make less than a veteran teacher, but make no mistake, the college professors at the top can easily take in $200k from teaching, and often have other sources of income. Similarly, you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the average baseball player doesn’t make very much.

Some other considerations:
college professors above a certain level only need to teach 6–12 hours a week, tue-thur
high school public school teachers have strong unions.
vacation time for college professors is greater
college professors get to interact with higher caliber students.

That’s not always the case. That’s like saying why do teachers make more than couselors—not always true.