Accounting for their benefits, total teacher compensation averages out to nearly 100k per year. While we are in love with the idea of quoting our compensation to friends simply in terms of our salaries/hourly wages, the simple fact of the matter is most of us get some sort of benefits from our employers, and that dramatically increases our total pay. As far as education spending is concerned, there are other ways to cap it / control it that go beyond teacher pay, but I suspect those methods aren't discussed because it's easier (for both sides) to fixate on teachers. The GOP does it because most teachers are unionized and strongly support the Democrats (just as other government workers tend to do). The Democrats do it because it humanizes the issue and allows them to claim your kids' education will dramatically suffer if we dare cut education spending.
Regarding your second point about the job creators, that too is screwed up. The GOP would never argue something in terms of a "living wage" as that is common left-wing parlance (just as "job creator" is right-wing). Their argument - such as it is - focuses on allowing the wealthy to keep more of their money in order to free that money up to be invested / spent. In a weird sort of way, it's something like the education debate in reverse, where they argue that if we dare mess with the upper income tax cuts/incentives, we'll destroy the economy because businesses will instantly lay people off and stop spending.
The long and short of it is both sides will apply nutty logic on any issue that suits them and scares people into voting whatever way is necessary to protect the entrenched interests.
