My teacher friend usually gets a full-time summer job at a college prep program, totally unrelated to his school-year employer. (Anecdote.)

Most teachers absolutely do get a 3 month break. They’ll have a few workshops at most.

my sister was a teacher for 20-odd years, then she went through a Ph.D. program in education theory, and now teaches teachers. So below is not based on "knowing one or two teachers", but on knowing how teachers are trained/certified and what professional standards are.

Most teachers work hard over the summer, it isn't a break. Pay isn't great.

And a certain mainstream political group puts significant effort into demonizing the profession and destroying the pay/benefits packages... which matters, because in public schools, the politicians hold the purse strings.

People in here seem to be using "most" to mean "people I know personally".

To add another data point, every teacher I know uses at least a third of their "break" for lesson planning. Usually more.

To add another data point, _every_ teacher I know (I know three) use less than a month of their three month break on lesson planning/continuing education/staff obligations.

And some tech workers work 12 hours/day. That's on them for making poor decisions.