JROTC POWER Act

Plain-English Summary

This bill would require the Secretary of Defense to take a closer look at how JROTC instructors are paid and whether that pay is affecting the military's ability to hire and keep qualified teachers for the program. Specifically, the Department of Defense would need to update its official guidelines to include an evaluation of whether the current instructor pay scale is helping or hurting recruitment and retention of JROTC staff.

The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) is a program offered in high schools across the country that teaches students leadership, citizenship, and basic military skills. It is run by instructors who are typically retired military personnel. This bill would affect those instructors, the high schools that host JROTC programs, and indirectly the students who participate — particularly if instructor shortages are leaving some programs understaffed or causing schools to lose their programs entirely.

The bill does not directly change instructor pay or guarantee any raises. Instead, it focuses on requiring the Defense Department to study and formally assess the problem, update its guidance accordingly, and presumably use that information to make more informed decisions in the future. The bill was introduced in the Senate and has been referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee, where it will be reviewed before any further action is taken.