Schools across Massachusetts depend on the Amy Morins of the teaching corps.
A paraprofessional, or teacher’s aide, in the Lexington public schools, Morin works intensively each day with kindergartners with special needs, freeing up classroom teachers to tend to the other students. On a recent morning, she helped one child with a hearing aid, went over classwork with another, stomped to the beat with a third during music class.
But she is paid just $38,000 a year, less than half the average teacher’s salary in Lexington. A single mother of two children, she lives in subsidized housing and gets by on bare necessities.
“I only work 10 months out of the year and I have no income over the summer,” Morin said. “I have to budget in order to make ends meet, because all the bills still stay the same even though the income stops.”
“I’m constantly worried,” she said.
No longer “teacher helpers,” charged with making copies or cleaning classrooms, today’s paraprofessionals are integral to functioning classrooms in public schools across the country. They represent the fastest growing sector of the US education workforce, their ranks doubling in the last 30 years as the shortage of teachers has grown more acute. Many work with special education students, who are now largely integrated into mainstream classrooms, offering academic assistance, life-skills training and behavioral management. Massachusetts paraprofessionals must have a high school diploma in addition to some college...
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