I am conflicted on this. One part of me think that they deserve a lot more compensation. But I am not really sure if that should be in the form of a salary rise.

Why not?

Because those who are attracted by the high pay might not be the best ones to do the job.

I left teaching and have, literally, 10x'd my annual income after a few years. While teaching, I couldn't afford to support my family of four.

We don't need people stressing and struggling financially for the privilege of teaching our youth. That leaves those without a better option or have a working spouse.

So that is why I said teachers should be compensated well but may be by other means than paying out a large sum as salary.

For example, if you were able to get free education for your children as part of your payment, wouldn't that have made your life a lot easier?

that's true about every job. Even computers were better when nerds ran them.

While true, not all jobs are equally critical in that regard. A bad programmer probably can be detected easily. But the effects of a generation of bad teachers might only show up after many decades!