I work in the public education system for Ontario.
Let's just say what you're saying is correct; that teachers work 8am-7pm 5 days a week. Which to me sounds like bull, because I can tell you first hand that the majority of teachers are the first ones to hop in their cars and leave the school when the bell rings because they want to beat the traffic jam around school buses and parents vehicles. Not saying some don't stay behind but from what I see, the majority are gone at the ring of the bell.
So let's say they work 8am-7pm 5 days a week. Let's take away their hour lunch because that lunch is union mandated and they HAVE to take it. Yes, some teachers will work through lunch but it's a big no no to do so in a unionized environment.
So they work 10hr days, 50hrs a week. They work from Sept-June so that's 43 weeks of work. Let's take away the 2wk vacation they get for christmas. Also the 1 week vacation they get for march break. So that's actually 40weeks of work for the year.
That's 2000 hrs worth of work in 40weeks. Sounds like a alot!
But a year has 52weeks, minus the three weeks vacation they get that I mentioned above is 49 weeks. 2000hrs divided by 49 weeks is 40.8hrs a wk which is a standard work week for most people.
Sure they work hard Sept-June, but then they get 2months off that they've technically put their hours in for already. They're compensated well for the work they do and while it may seem they're working more hours than everyone else sept-june, they're actually working the same amount of hours as any other working person if you look at it on a yearly basis instead.
Actually, no they're not. Because no one else gets march break off unless they use vacation time, no one else gets the full two weeks of christmas off except for stat holidays. Not to mentioned PD days for professional development, paid snow days when weather is bad, paid personal days, minimum 2weeks of vacation time or more depending on how long they've worked at the Board for, and other perks.
They also have blocked time off throughout their day for lesson planning or grading papers.
Don't forget, this is all based on the bullshit assumption that they're working 8am-7pm 5 days a week.