"If people were properly educate and if we were to allocate resources to support teachers and our education system, then they might have better understanding of our economic system and hence become more informed and better voters."

How about general relativity and quantum physics? We need our citizens to understand civics, not economics. If better teachers can give us an electorate that can spot and reject a Nazi like Trump, we can leave the wonkery to others. Whether better teachers can do that isn't clear.

I do believe that American teachers are underpaid. But I am not sure that the teachers in the countries that pay them best - not the USA but the social democracies of Western Europe - are struggling.

Finally, recall that this thread proceeds from an original article that I took to be an attack on capitalism. That is why my statements are about capitalism and why it matters that the best paid teachers are found in capitalist countries. Where they are struggling, they shouldn't be.