there is record low unemployment right now in the united states, and that is leading to labor shortages in many industries. are those numbers simply reflected in what some people are calling a teacher shortage? it is certainly possible. what we have seen he have convery consistently is that schools are having an especially hard time getting school bus drivers and getting substitute teachers actually. and the substitute teacher thing is one where that might seem, oh, well, that is not such a big deal to substitute, but substitute teachers actually allow a school to function, allow teachers to take days off when they are sick. and when you don t have enough subs, the school can devolve into chaos. so i think it is true that the schools are feeling the labor shortage, but it is not always with the regular classroom teachers that they are facing the biggest struggles. and a lot of schools have been using pandemic relief money to boost teacher wages to keep
back in a routine an excited for them to learn but we know that the best education that happens is when we as parents are partners with the teachers in the building and everybody is tired. parents are tired. educators are tired and the extra work that partnership sake takes can be challenging for parents like us. exacerbated everything. the fracturing of relationships. pay definitely is a factor. we heard from the secretary of education cordona wants to boost teacher wages. i think we need to raise the bar to pay teachers what they are due. the profession of teaching is 33% less than other college educated programs or other
in lewis, delaware and raising 10 ferst for the second straight year to raise teacher wages to roughly $14 an hour. i don t want to drive away the parents. reporter: jessica is a teacher at beach babies and her 5-year-old son comes here for day care. most of my paycheck is going to have him here. and that is rough because now bev gas price and food price and everything is just going up and up. have you thought about leaving the industry? i love what i do. and i can t these children need teachers who do love what they do. but many mothers have left the work force. part of a trend. as of may, women s jobs made up 88% of those lost in the pandemic. this is jasper. reporter: these two have struggled to afford childcare in san diego. $370 a week. since her employer cut her hours in half so they flew her sons to