I left teaching during that time period after 18 years due to a cheap ass school board in a wealthy school district in one of PA's wealthiest counties. Their cheapness resulted in my not even closely keeping up with the COL.

Shitty administration and unrealistic testing/curriculum standards created by clueless state and federal level legislators and bureaucrats didn't help either.

Ultimately my class sizes grew dramatically, student needs exploded, and virtually zero additional resources were ever provided to assist. You were on your own with hypocritical administrators ever ready to criticize and and everything. Meanwhile, I'd go years without a raise causing financial stress at home as well.

Ironically, I had almost zero problems with students or their parents. They weren't the problem. Our politicians, ed department bureaucrats and administrators who never get out of their offices to understand what current life in the trenches is like. Those are the problems along with bad ed law and shit funding formulas