HR 7202 — Invest in Rural Teachers Act

Summary

This bill establishes a federal grant program to support signing and retention bonuses for teachers in rural schools, administered by the Secretary of Education.
States that receive grants must distribute funds to local school districts and educational service agencies to award bonuses to eligible teachers.
Teachers hired to work in rural schools receive $5,000 annually for a 3-year period if they commit to teach at the school, totaling $15,000.
School districts are encouraged to prioritize hiring teachers from the local community and to partner with colleges and universities to recruit teachers for rural schools.
The bill authorizes $500 million annually for fiscal years 2027 through 2030 to fund the program.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Rep. Bynum, Janelle S. (D-OR) [#5]

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Janelle S. Bynum’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

GOOGLE $25,251
STATE OF OREGON $17,357
MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL $13,200
MOTLEY RICE LLC $12,750
OHSU $12,113

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Janelle S. Bynum → · Outside spending →

Actions (2)

Jan 22, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce. · house
Jan 22, 2026 Introduced in House

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 22, 2026

Ms. Bynum introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce

A BILL

To direct the Secretary of Education to carry out a grant program to support signing and retention bonuses for teachers in rural schools, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Invest in Rural Teachers Act”.

SEC. 2. RURAL SCHOOL RECRUITMENT INCENTIVE PROGRAM.

(a) In General.—Title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6601 et seq.) is amended—

(1) by redesignating part C as part D; and

(2) by inserting after part B, the following:

“PART C—RURAL TEACHER INCENTIVE BONUSES

“SEC. 2251. RURAL TEACHER INCENTIVE BONUSES.

“(a) Grants to States.—

“(1) Authority to award grants.—The Secretary shall carry out a program under which the Secretary makes grants to States to enable States to award subgrants to eligible entities, in accordance with subsection (b), to support signing and retention bonuses for teachers in rural schools.

“(2) Application.—To be eligible to receive a grant under this section, a State shall submit an application to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may require.

“(b) Subgrants to Eligible Entities.—

“(1) Authority to award grants.—A State that receives a grant under subsection (a) shall use the grant funds to award subgrants to eligible entities to pay signing and retention bonuses, in accordance with paragraph (3), to individuals hired to teach in rural schools.

“(2) Application.—To be eligible to receive a subgrant under this subsection, an eligible entity shall submit an application to the State at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the State may require.

“(3) Use of funds.—

“(A) In general.—An eligible entity that receives a subgrant under paragraph (1) shall use the subgrant funds to award a signing and retention bonus to each teacher hired by the agency who agrees to teach in a rural school for a period of 3 school years.

“(B) Bonus amount and disbursement.—The amount of the signing and retention bonus paid to a teacher under subparagraph (A) shall be $5,000 annually for each year of the 3 school-year period described in such subparagraph.

“(4) Prioritization of homegrown teachers.—An eligible entity that receives a subgrant under this subsection shall seek to prioritize the recruitment, hiring, and award of bonuses to teachers who previously resided in the community served by the entity, including teachers who were born, raised, and educated in such community.

“(c) Partnerships With Institution of Higher Education.—States and eligible entities shall seek to enter into partnerships with institutions of higher education for purposes of—

“(1) informing students in teacher preparation programs about the availability of rural teacher incentive bonuses under this section; and

“(2) encouraging students in such programs to seek teaching positions in rural schools.

“(d) Definitions.—In this section:

“(1) The term ‘eligible entity’ means—.

“(A) a local educational agency that meets the requirements of section 5211(b); or

“(B) an educational service agency that serves such a local educational agency.

“(2) The term ‘rural school’ means a school under the jurisdiction of a local educational agency described in paragraph (1)(A).”.

(b) Authorization of Appropriations.—Section 2003 of such Act is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(c) Rural Teacher Incentive Bonuses.—For the purposes of carrying out part C, there are authorized to be appropriated $500,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2030.”. <all>

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