Bernie Sanders calls for a minimum teacher salary of $60K  

Amid a nationwide teacher shortage, low teacher pay is an issue that both sides of the aisle have made efforts to tackle in recent weeks. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has joined the growing chorus of people calling for a higher base salary for public school teachers.

“We should be paying public school teachers a minimum of at least $60,000 a year,” Sanders said at a town hall with national teachers union leaders. “I am proud to tell you I will soon be introducing legislation to do just that.”

There was already legislation to increase the minimum wage of teachers in the U.S. to $60,000 introduced in the house last year. That bill, called The American Teacher Act, was sponsored by Reps. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), would push states to raise their minimum salaries for teachers through a federal grant program and has the support of several prominent teacher organizations.

It is unclear if federal legislation around the issue would receive bipartisan support but at the state level, Republicans have also moved in the direction of increasing teacher pay.

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