A pair of public school teachers warned a key Senate committee on Thursday that low educator pay in the United States is fueling staff shortages across the country and damaging the country's education system, which is also under sustained attack from right-wing lawmakers who want to slash federal investments in schools and abolish the Department of Education.
'If we continue to underinvest in the pay and working conditions and don't match the responsibilities and job expectations, the paraprofessionals shortage will rise, the same way the pipeline of teachers has declined. I must also acknowledge and fully recognize that my job as a teacher would be impossible to do without my paraprofessional staff.' Watch the full hearing: According to the latest data, the average starting teacher salary in the U.S.