Teaching in a public high school in the Bronx is certainly undercompensated as compared to some other things a recent Harvard graduate might be doing, but when my daughter was teaching in a public high school in the Bronx 8-9 years ago she was earning close to the median for her class at a similar college in tougher economic times. From an absolute standpoint, teaching public school in the Bronx (or anywhere else in NYC) is not so poorly compensated at the entry level.
A close friend of my other kid’s, from a family mainly living in poverty, also went into public school teaching after graduating from a prestigious LAC. While she was certainly aware that it was a less lucrative career path than most of her college classmates were choosing, from the perspective of her family it was a solid middle-class, professional occupation that didn’t involve turning your back on your family and your community.
I know any number of 20-somethings who take risks with their careers in order to do good in the world. It absolutely affects their level of current consumption, and how they live in the world now. They are self-supporting. But they know that when they want to buy a house, there will be money for that, and there will also be money for their children’s education. I wonder how people like that responded to the Harvard survey. Did they admit that family wealth gave them the ability to earn less now?