"interesting side-question, are teachers considered professionals? I have no idea, but they are licensed and most have degrees in teaching)"

I have no idea why someone wouldn't consider a teacher to be a professional. In my state of CT, they must be certified (licensure that is not easy to obtain) and all must attain a Masters degree in ED by a certain period of time, for this they receive the second highest pay rates in the country. They must also be very careful about their private lives, the teaching profession gets scrutinized more than most. Other states are far less stringent, maybe you wouldn't call them professional there, but I doubt it.

If you're using 'professional' as an adj. opposed to 'blue collar', then teachers certainly aren't blue collar.