Teachers didn't receive equivalent pay with doctors before there were effective teacher unions , which is to say , before the 1960s , nor will they in the unlikely event that their unions disappear . For one thing , teachers are not required to undergo anything like the preparation required of doctors in the number of years required or the financial cost , which finds many new doctors burdened with a debt far beyond that experienced by any new teacher . The qualifications required to even enter a medical training program exceed anything required by even the strictest teacher preparation program . By the way , if you wonder why there is such a proliferation of collegiate teacher education programs it has little or nothing to do with the institution's need to prepare teachers . Rather , it is because the colleges make a profit on them .
Most institutions charge a standard tuition regardless of the program a student enters .
An education program requires no expensive equipment , small classes , or any of the other factors that result in an expensive program . For the most part all it requires is someone at the front of the class doing talking most of the time , plus some time spent as a student teacher . Thus much of the money prospective teachers pay in tuition can be used by the institution to underwrite other programs or even non-educational costs . Beyond the technicalities , however , there are other significant reasons why teachers aren't paid like doctors , and they never will be . One is the weight of numbers .