H.R. 692·Elementary Experienced
A Bill to Establish a Federal Minimum Salary of $60,000 for Elementary Teachers
Rep. Becker (D-WA)
Federal salary supplement to bring every public elementary teacher to at least $60,000 base pay.
Sec. 1 — Mandate
The Secretary of Education shall provide formula grants to ensure no public elementary teacher earns less than a $60,000 base salary.
Sec. 2 — Maintenance of Effort
States may not reduce their existing teacher salary contributions.
Sec. 3 — Funding
$14 billion per year.
Sec. 4 — Enforcement
Annual state certification audits.
Tournament Prep
Mechanical parts, sourced & timed
Use this as your pre-round checklist. Memorize the source citation. Time yourself to the delivery target.
- Bill / Number
- H.R. 692 — A Bill to Establish a Federal Minimum Salary of $60,000 for Elementary Teachers
- Funding source
- $14B/yr formula grants from general fund.
- Timeline
- First disbursements FY27.
- Realistic — uses existing Title II formula plumbing.
- Enforcing agency
- Department of Education.
- Yes — Title II already supports teacher salary supplements.
- Penalty for non-compliance
- Loss of teacher-quality grant share.
- Source citation
- Learning Policy Institute (Sutcher et al., 2019), 'A Coming Crisis in Teaching?' — learningpolicyinstitute.org.
- Delivery time (read aloud)
- 1:05 (65s)
Strongest counter-argument
Federal salary mandates eliminate local pay-for-performance flexibility.
Your pre-emptive answer
It's a *floor*, not a ceiling. Districts retain full freedom to layer performance pay on top. LPI (2019) showed states with below-$45K starting salaries face 3x the vacancy rate — a floor solves the supply crisis.