As teacher and school staff shortages continue to deepen across the country, new federal legislation is offering a bold vision to rebuild the educator workforce, while a parallel political effort threatens to dismantle the very systems that support it.
Unveiled at AFT’s national TEACH conference last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Pay Teachers Act proposes a transformative overhaul of public school educators’ compensation. The bill would guarantee every full-time public school teacher a minimum salary of $60,000 per year, scaled by experience and inflation. It also allocates at least $1,000 annually in classroom supply funds directly to teachers and triples Title I funding to assist high-need schools. The bill includes nearly $8 billion to create a national teacher career ladder, allowing educators to advance professionally without leaving the classroom.
The legislation is a new complement to Sen. Ed Markey’s recently refiled Pay Paraprofessionals and Education Support Staff Act, which seeks to raise minimum pay for paraprofessionals to $45,000 annually or $30/hour, while investing in recruitment, credentialing, and retention programs. The bill specifically targets rural and urban districts most affected by low staffing and support shortages.
Together, these proposals represent the most ambitious federal investment in education labor in decades.
But they arrive as the Department of Education itself is under threat. The Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the DOE, including massive staff layoffs and a freeze on billions in congressionally approved Title II, III, and IV grant funds, have already had chilling effects. These cuts endanger support for teacher training, English learners, after-school programs, and students with disabilities.
As usual, educators are being asked to do more with less, and these two bills represent a different vision for the future. While Sanders and Markey envision a strengthened, better-paid education workforce, federal rollbacks risk leaving students, teachers, and staff without a safety net.
In this battle between reinvestment and retrenchment, the stakes for America’s public school system have never been higher.