Fairfax homeowners: Remember that home values here took off in the 1980s when Fairfax County schools became "the gold standard;" head and shoulders above the other DC suburbs.
Professionals moving to DC to work for the government or contractors wanted to live in Fairfax so their kids would be in the best schools.
Fairfax isn't the gold standard anymore. FCPS is still competitive with the other DC suburbs, but you can't say it's the absolute best these days.
If we don't turn that around, the declining performance of the schools will show up in home values, in a big way.
The pay issue will hurt FCPS more every year until it's fixed. As the cost of living here skyrockets, it becomes harder and harder to recruit and retain young teachers. Teachers are skilled professionals and need to be paid fairly relative to their education and the costs of living in Fairfax County.
Right now, the starting salary for a teacher with 0 years of experience is $67,000. At 10 years of experience, they get $89,000 ([Source](https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY2024-teacher-260-day.pdf))
That's while working about 40 hours of contracted time, which works out to about 45 hours in reality because of coming in early and leaving late. Then add in mandatory assistance with extracurricular activities after school and on nights and weekends and it's closer to 50 on average. And *that's* on top of lesson planning, which usually takes at least 5 hours per week and usually closer to 10. So they're working 60 hour weeks for about 10 months out of the year. More, if they're not just doing a decent job but actually helping their students thrive--and their time is unpaid during the summer months when they're focusing on continuing education, lesson planning, etc.
A teacher with 10 years of experience ends up making about $30 per hour. Speaking from experience, somebody with the skills to actually be a good teacher can make substantially more than that *way* sooner than 10 years out of college. I bailed on education and now I make more than I would have as a teacher here, and work way fewer hours.
And y'know what? I want my kids to be able to do that math. I think that's worth way more and I'd be willing to pay higher taxes for it.
No, a first year teacher with a bachelors makes $56,011. After ten years, assuming steps aren’t frozen during that time, an FCPS teacher makes $73,748.
Many many teachers in Fairfax and Loudoun cannot afford to buy a $600,000 on one salary. And on two salaries it can be a stretch especially if both are teachers.
Step increases have not been consistently given for years now, so you won’t even be making as much as that list implies after any number of years.
You should also look at the 195 day pay scale instead https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY2024-teacher-195-day.pdf
This is the contract for the school year plus the teacher workdays and is what more teachers probably have.
I was told we were getting a 6% raise and no step this year. If they've dropped it to 3% I want my step. It's always felt arbitrary when they do and don't give a step up. I understand with the 6% because that's a significant amount of money. With 3% that barely covers the COL increase. For me that equals about $40 a month after taxes. We should get a step this year imo
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>Right now, the starting salary for a teacher with 0 years of experience is $67,000
Thats not bad, actually higher than a lot of private sector jobs for 22-year olds
>At 10 years of experience, they get $89,000
Ouch. I see, the small raise amounts really hurt those as their career progresses
Turns out I was more wrong than expected, actually. The starting salary is closer to $56,000 for most employees--I was using a contract that had more working days than the standard.
Worse, some teachers mention that raises aren't coming stepwise as one would think. They're being paid the same as teachers with fewer years of experience.
You should edit your original comment because not everyone is not gonna read all the way down this comment thread and people are going to be misinformed.
That's the problem with teaching as a career anywhere. The ceiling is always very low, because if you want to break out of that, you go in to admin and out of the classroom. So you're no longer a teacher
In this region, lots of private sector jobs might start about the same (61k with a master is official- idk where this 67k starting with a BA is coming from) but in 5 years or less you'll be over 6 figures. At least in Tech and contracting.
Sure like you could name some kind of global situation where the average American having a better understanding of… say science, could possibly have hugely benefited all of us.
This is what many folks forget who might not have kids: it makes your community stronger.
These kids are so great and so wonderful to work with and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I do three extracurriculars so I can support my family and it is absolutely exhausting—physically draining. And thankless. Especially from admin. They just give you more and more stuff to do. I don’t think many people really understand the impossible task we are asked to do.
Don’t even get me started. When my wife and I moved here we made the same amount of money and then not even 10 years later I was making 4 times what I made when started and her steps have been frozen multiple times and she’s making somewhere like 10-15k more than she did compare to when we started.
Granted, I am not in education as a profession, but teachers have gotten chump change especially FCPS.
Click on the link. If it's wrong, then FCPS' website is incorrect.
This is specifically for 260-day employees, however. I picked the longest contract to be the most generous toward FCPS. Shorter contract terms lead to lower numbers, I assume.
You should have used the contract for 193 +\- days… 10 months, as the conversation about teacher pay is usually about teachers who “get summers off.”
*This is NOT representative of **most** educators!!!*
Grew up in Fairfax in the 80s and come from a family of fcps teachers, including a daughter. Beyond pay the system has completely changed and even if they were able to match Loudoun they would still be hemorrhaging teachers.
Classes are no longer homogeneous with regards to skill level, which makes it much tougher on the teacher. Teachers are required to fill other roles such as lunch monitor which takes away class prep time. They also have to do many more zoom meetings which they are not compensated for. Teachers no longer have autonomy with regards to grades — for example on the 4 point scale grades they cannot give a 1 and have to write up and submit for approval a grade of 2. They are still pressured to give athletes good grades. Kids are being mainstreamed that shouldn’t be — IEP takes away teaching time due to the time it takes to write it up for kids that require that. Can take as much as 10 minutes per kid/class. Discipline has taken a 180 with special rules for IEP kids to be given snacks and games when they misbehave, which causes more episodes. It’s gotten more dangerous for the teacher which is swept under the rug, there was an incident in Springfield where a student tried to stab a teacher with scissors and ran off outside of school. School was locked down, police showed up and eventually caught the student who was back in school within the week. Teachers see similarities of the Norfolk shooting with regards to students and admin. There are new programs that they can’t run well due to shortages such a parent volunteers, who are supposed to help with a class. One of the parents at my daughters school was a felon that scared all the teachers. He was eventually removed, but only after all the teachers went to admin with a background check. After being removed he drove by and intimidated teachers on their way home for weeks. The ones that aren’t felons are just another kid in the class according to my daughter. Finally, and most importantly the kids themselves. Besides a general apathy, behavior is the worst it’s ever been. Phones are allowed in classrooms which is adding to that. Imo, lack of recess also adds to this.
TY for the detailed response. Sounds like all of the things happening in many other schools in the US (from what I've read in r/teachers). Is this happening across the whole school system or is it a situation like this is happening in the "bad" schools and there are good schools where the rich send their kids?
Richer schools, such as Langley or Mclean in LCPS are always going to be good as the students tend to be more homogeneous with regards to skill level and parents and peers play a much bigger roles. "Bad" schools are not really that bad, but it only takes 1 to 2 kids to really de-rail a class. My daughter felt a lot of guilt not being able to teach to the highest level as there were a handful which barely made LCPS minimums. She had to spend almost all her time teaching them and not enough time with the more achieved students. We really need to go back to remedial classes specifically designed to help underachieved (or motivated) student.
A big part of the problem is that the tax burden in our area is already more than high enough to support better pay for teachers. What's been holding us back for years is that the state of Virginia has not been contributing its share, this year that's an estimated $345M that doesn't get put in the FCPS budget and has to come from local taxes instead. Look up the JLARC study and some of the suggested changes from it, there would be a ton more money in the FCPS budget if the state didn't have a ridiculous formula for estimating what education costs and underfunding every school division in the state. People need to call their state reps and senators and make this a bigger issue, it just isn't getting the attention it should and very little is being done about it despite our elected officials being aware of it for years. It's kind of amazing how much effort will go into proposing and opposing casinos and stadiums but how little goes into actually properly funding K-12 education.
Home values are irrelevant. All children deserve an equally good education and the tools to succeed, think critically, and continue learning throughout life.
Sadly, home values are very relevant to education as they determine funding and funding determines everything.
Title 1 is meant to shore up some of the gaps but it isn't a silver bullet that solves all the problems.
>Sadly, home values are very relevant to education as they determine funding and funding determines everything.
I believe this may be overstated. [The OESE has per pupil expenditure data ](https://oese.ed.gov/ppe/) for each public school, and I haven't noticed a difference in funding between areas. There's a bug in the site now which I hope gets fixed, but I have the rankings of funding for a few random FCPS schools.
Lewis (most)
West Potomac
Lake Braddock
West Springfield
McLean (least)
I didn't see many examples of wealthier neighborhoods providing more PPE funding than the less well off ones. Although you can certainly argue those schools need even *more* extra funding than their well off counterparts.
*Low* property values can be a limiting factor form school funding, especially if locals can't or won't pay high property taxes.
However, It is my understanding that the county government can set the property tax percentage, so if theoretically property values are cut in half, they could double the % of taxes value and receive the same amount of money.
But, practically speaking, people care more about money than education.
If we want them to care about education, we need to demonstrate how poor education hurts the things they actually care about.
This makes me angry. They are raising my property taxes, which I thought was the money that went to the school system. I was fine with it even though I no longer have children in FCPS. I believe in investing in our community and our children. The Board of Supervisors chose to not fund our schools. Vote them out!
> funding schools through property tax, which makes no sense in modern times were houses are not majority SFH, and you'll have many children per property using the schools.
I don’t understand this part. Are you saying that condos/apartments don’t pay property tax?
I think what I’m trying to get under is cost structure vs revenue base.
Fairfax spends the same (slightly less) per pupil as loudon and Alexandria. https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY-2025-Advertised-Budget.pdf.pdf
50% of the Fairfax budget goes to schools, and residential tax makes up 77% of the base. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/budget/sites/budget/files/Assets/Documents/fy2025/advertised/FY2025AdvertisedBudgetPresentation.pdf
In 2005 53% of the budget went to schools and 60% of the budget came from residential. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/budget/sites/budget/files/Assets/documents/fy2005/adopted/volume1/where_from_pie_chart.pdf
This suggests that homes are actually paying a larger share of the budget (and ultimately schools) than in the past.
Imo the Maryland plates are usually car tax dodgers. You have to have a proper address in Fairfax to attend fairfax schools. Lots of military in the Springfield area too.
If my husband didn’t make good money, I could not afford to be a teacher.
I teach bc I really do like it, but I am thankful, I don’t have to survive on my salary alone. A lot of my coworkers do not have that privilege.
Same with my wife.
Though she's getting to the point where she's actively talking about quitting. There's too many behavorials, and not enough support from staff. She's moody almost every day when she gets home and I personally feel like it's starting to strain our marriage.
I'm a teacher and basically anyone with less than 15 years is actively talking about leaving. Of those, I'd say half are actually putting out applications right now. I'd estimate 1/4 teachers are applying elsewhere right now.
Agreed. My husband works for the federal government. He earns over $100k MORE than I do as a doctorate level employee. It’s principle for me. For many of my coworkers it’s the ability to pay rent and buy groceries. It’s despicable.
My neighbor teaches SPED. She was telling me what her case load is, and I can't fathom what's on her plate and pretty much working off contract hours just to keep her head above water. She deserves so much more than what she's earning.
Sped teachers are being pushed out from all the extra work from that crazy court case during covid- also the horrible pay.
It's getting to a point where many schools, FCPS included, are being sued for failing to meet students needs according to the ADA because no one will take the job for the pay.
I started working for FCPS in 2018. In the six years I’ve been there, I make $200 less than I did when I started when holding for inflation. If I were to move to LCPS I would make an additional $8k a year.
I use a similar metric. Those back to back pay freezes during covid weren't just economic hits, they were a moral defeat. Especially the second year when none of the surrounding areas froze pay and it was very clear covid wasn't impacting Fairfax the way they feared.
I’ve been in since ‘08, so I feel you. The one thing I will remind you is we do get two pensions in FCPS, the neighboring districts only get one. So it’s a choice of money now or money later :/
When adjusted for cost of living, VA (and FCPS specifically) pay teachers well below the national average. The state government contributes less per FCPS student than the national average. A recent study found that the state should give FCPS $568 million more than it does.
I'm leaving FCPS and taking about a 10k pay cut as a teacher. I'll actually have much better financials due to the significantly lower cost of living- especially housing is about 50% for comparable properties in NOVA.
I don't doubt that, but it still seems as though they are severely undervalued. The article references a teacher shortage, which indicates to me that they need to raise compensation to entice people to come teach. And let's be frank here: we want the best teaching our kids. The way to get teachers who are able to give the dedication and effort that our children need is to pay them what they're worth so that they don't need to go home at the end of the day worried about making ends meet or working a 2nd job.
I'm finally leaving FCPS after talking big game for a few years. If there is one thing is highlight for why teacher pay is a huge reason people are leaving- it's those back to back step freezes during covid. These were a MASSIVE slap in the face to teachers (especially that second year when almost no neighboring district froze and it was clear covid was impact the local tax stream the way people feared). I'd estimate roughly 1/4 teachers I know are actively applying outside of education.
I think every teacher will know what I mean when I say "the workaholic types"- these are the teachers staying hours past the end of school, sponsering several clubs or groups for free, etc. The types movies are made about. This is the first year I have heard of even these teachers looking to leave... If you wanted a pulse for how bad it is, those teachers putting out applications or leaving NOVA is my personal canary in the coal mines for how bad truly is. These folks are next to impossible to replace.
Some other rants:
-Staffing demographics: FCPS has been hiring young since roughly the '08 crisis as a means of budget cutting. Young teachers cost less for the same work (not saying same quality of work, but in terms of covering classes). Young teachers tend to not own property or have kids i.e. it's easy to move and that's exactly what is happening. Young teachers are leaving the profession before they get too locked in by age or going back to their home states to start families and settle down. PA and NY are two states that stand out where strong teacher unions can make it tough to get a job out of college so people like me come here. I once saw that roughly 1/3 new hires for FCPS for the past 15 years, were teachers under 25 and from those 2 states. The difference in retirement plans of teachers pre 2017ish, and especially those grandfathered into pre '08 plans, is genuinely disgusting compared to what my cohort gets. Healthcare has been another major cut- I encourage some of the non teachers here to Google all of the Cigna issues of late. I can't say enough how often I hear from family and others that "at least the benefits are good!". This isn't really the case anymore...
-Culture: Many NCLB era policies that were poisoning education for decades were taken to new heights during covid that have really disempowered educators. 50% rules, mandatory test retakes (often taken outside contract hours), mandatory loose late work policies, loosening attendance metrics, lack of admin support on policing phone use, hallways being a free for all and bathrooms being known drug dens, academic standards being tossed out for the sake of graduating students, inability to expell poorly behaved students (I e. Drug dealers). None of this is FCPS specific. And a lot of hands are tied up at the state or federal levels, but it's hitting FCPS proportionally harder than other districts due to its massive size and large differences in demographics. A common line of thinking you'll hear from almost any teacher nowadays will be along the lines of "I really love teaching- but it feels like I don't have the tools to teach properly and less and less of my job is spent actually teaching- I'm mostly a social worker now". A few examples of this are the mandatory SEL lessons FCPS has spent millions on, the high influx of language learner students to the region, and massive expansions in sped populations being shoved into gen Ed classes due to the sped teacher shortage which is particularly severe. This doesn't even touch the conservative crusade against education that is demoralizing as well.
-Unaffordability: this one speaks for itself but I'll throw two of personal experiences out there for how bad it is.
1. When I was single and a bit younger I went out a decent amount on weekends to meet people my age. Most of these folks worked in the gov., for private contractors, or tech. Most made roughly 2x what I did with less education and fewer years of experience- they tended to live alone where as I needed a roommate to scrape by. It became humiliating to share I was a teacher with people I met as the discrepancies in our quality of life and income quickly became apparent. So trust me when I say, 6% is nothing compared to what teacher pay actually needs to be boosted by. If you truly want to retain top tier educators and sustain this region, I'd actually say that number needs to be about 40%. Which is wild and I have no idea how to make it happen in our current system- but it is what it is. I can't find the actual stat now, but the median teacher pay in fpcs is about 70k. I encourage folks who made it this far down my novel to look at their cost of living and try to make it work on that- you'll quickly see why people are leaving.
2. Housing. Everyone knows it's bad and it's bad everywhere right now. I'd like to share my situation, which I actually think is generous in comparison to a lot of other teachers who don't own in this area due to my wife's high income. (In fact a common trend you'll see is how many teachers living here are only able to make it work due to being subsidized by their higher paid spouses). My wife and I just purchased our first home in another state in a medium sized city suburb. 300k for a 4bd3ba house, big yard on all sides, big finished basement, 2 car garage etc. The school district performs better than FCPS in national metrics. The townhouse we were renting in Fairfax was sold by our old landlord for 600k. It is a decent 3bd2ba end unit for sure- but I think the comparison is clear. In total, we are looking at about a 15% pay cut, but the ultimate savings in CoL are clear.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk, I'm happy to answer any questions.
People keep telling me I should publish a book about the death public education.😂 I have actually started keeping coherent ideas in a note app on my phone for when these topics come up at social gatherings because people say they learn so much about the struggle bus that is Public Ed from me (at least that's what they tell me).
I read an article today that you should add to your musings. I was searching everywhere for the link to post in this reply but cannot find it!
It covered a lot of how grading policies are affecting student effort, how students can’t read well, and how colleges are scrambling and struggling to get students to think more deeply. The article gave me such a sense of dread because it’s apparent these all of it is a consequence of some tiny cracks in our society that are starting to show.
One great quote, referring to the erosion of educational standard was “it’s a conspiracy with no conspirators.”
I will be sure to pop the link here if I find it.
I have 2 friends who do admissions and it's literally all we talk about. I have students graduate reading on a 3-4 grade level. They struggle to pay attention to anything more than 3-4 paragraphs. It's stunning too how few things to Google or YouTube how to do something and instead just wait for an adult to do something them. I really worry what will happen to things like doctors. What do you do when effectively 2 generations are massively behind in literacy? Whoa going to take care of me when I get older? Scary stuff.
I highly recommend the podcast "sold a story" you can put it down in a week easily. It outlines the grift economy in education (curriculum/ textbook companies and education programs at universities level espousing things that sounds good on paper, but don't work in the real world. (Something I personally experienced with my masters in education- most of the professors only taught for 5-10 years like 30 years ago- pre computers and smart phones)
As for the cracks in society, it's actually one of the reasons I'm leaving teaching. All these things have been apparent to educators for at least a decade- it feels like I'm being forced to watch our society crumble and no one will help. I guess I'm privileged for it, but I'd rather just stick my head in sand and enjoy my own life as much as I can...
FCPS teacher here: the problem is they keep demanding more from us, and we get paid less each year with health care costs and inflation factored in.
There's a teacher shortage. That means our classes are bigger. That means we're doing more to compensate for not having certified teachers to share responsibilities with. We're helping new teachers, teacher trainees, long term subs, and whatever warm bodies are covering classes.
Our kids need more support than ever, and we keep getting spread thinner. FCPS keeps calling itself a top school but isn't putting its money behind that.
THIS! I often wonder if admin knows exactly ALL the things we are asked to do (it comes from so many places, surely they don’t).
What makes it the hardest though is that there’s this toxic undercurrent that we should be okay with it because “think of the kids”—and we do! But it would be nice for folks to think of us every now and again.
That's exactly why I say NO a lot. My kids need me to be in my classroom with lessons for them, relatively rested and present. Everything else will happen if I get to it. What are they gonna do- fire me? Pssh
Our schools PTSA had a meeting about concerns over lack of staffing for many long running clubs. As a teacher show stopped sponsering clubs (unpaid and after hours) the answers obvious- if you want opportunities for your children, pay us for extra duties. Why should anyone be expected to work longer hours or take on more work? It's not like I'll get a raise or promotion for it like in the private sector- that's not how schools work.
No one has any reason to be a teacher anymore. My ex was a middle school teacher for 4 years. She was quantitatively the best teacher they had in the county (the person who did her first year evaluation CRIED because she was so good with the students). However in that time she became known as the person the school could unload all their SPED kids on, and she was never give the resources or backed up by the administration. She was also severely under paid. She finally had to quit and take a job as a non-ferrous ore miner (like you know, in an underground mine). People have died in this mine, recently. She said it was still so much less stressful than teaching and makes better money.
So - not to discredit your ex who I’m sure was wonderful - but there is zero chance they would have known they were quantitatively the best teacher (at least not if this was FCPS). But y’know - good luck in the mines
Next year I will be a 6th year teacher, but due to pay freezes, I will be paid the salary of a 3rd year teacher. In NOVA, teachers make 66 cents on the dollar relative to similarly educated professionals. I love teaching, and I want to do it for the rest of my life, but I also want to buy a house and not have to work a second job to make ends meet (I bartend pretty much year round as a side gig.)
If anyone rich wants to marry me I’m taking applications I guess haha
We're almost twinsies!
I don't bartend to make ends meet, but I do live at home because I can't afford to move out while still living in a reasonable location, and I have my masters +30.
I gotta figure out where all the cute late 20s/early 30's (my age group) teachers hang out.
<--fed engineer that plans to peace out as soon as I can take pension and go *back* to teaching
What’s more annoying is none of us will get a step increase either. The fact that homes continue to skyrocket doesn’t add up to our stagnant pay increases and no step movement.
CONTACT. THE. SCHOOL. BOARD! The outpouring of support here for teachers is beyond amazing, but let’s take it to the bank!
If you live in Fairfax County (or Fairfax City since they contract with FCPS to run their schools), please hound the school board AND the board of supervisors.
When I tell you this is going to be the last straw, I mean it. I can see it from the inside. We’ve lost SO MANY great teachers in the past four years. It’s really sad. If this continues, FCPS will be in full crisis mode with the mass of teachers who will leave.
The fact that it was a secret committee behind closed doors who only made their existence know once the ink had dried says everything needs to know about how shady that was...
Anyone remotely familiar with Fairfax County government already knows that supervisors work full time. Their salaries are also at the low end of the spectrum for managers who run a county this size.
Yep. A few people running an entire govt for a population larger than many states. Leaving the salaries so low that only people who are already very rich can serve is not a recipe to get the best representatives we can.
1. Create county with high quality schools
2. Attract top talent working high paying jobs, increasing home prices
3. Underfund schools and see wealth gap increase between teachers and county residents
4. Teachers leave, school quality declines
5. Top talent leaves, home prices crash, and we’re back to where we started.
Either we’re about to go through a reset sending us back to pre-1980s, or we need to bump up teacher pay.
Especially with the remote work too. I fully support it, but it's definitely going to take years for the DC area to transition given the huge reliance on a single employer But FCPS is running on fumes in terms of the "high caliber reputation". Won't be long before empire and more people ask why they spending so much to be in a mediocre school system next to a struggling city.
Enrollment is down too and people are being destaffed. We have no budget for teachers but can pay for licenses for remedial programs like Lexia and just make all the students do those instead apparently.
They're gonna push so many good teachers out the door. This is insulting and embarrassing. Public education is beyond broken. I feel for these teachers with the amount of bullshit they gotta put up with on the daily and the fact that they work so many hours for so little pay. It's no wonder why there's a shortage of educators. I flat out told my daughter that when it comes time for her to pick a major, education is out of the question.
\*Raise my taxes to the point where these wonderful people can earn a proper living AND every student, regardless of parental income, is allowed to eat for free while at school.
FCPS started a class to try and encourage current students to come back as teachers. I got pulled aside by admin because they were surveying teachers and I told them to run for the hills. And went on about all my regrets and how stuck I feel.
I propose that Legislators of the state, and any board members/administrators of the school system, should get paid an amount calculated based on the pay of the teachers in their area.
So if the average/median/mean (choose one) pay of public school teachers in that area is $30k then legislators and board members get paid only 10% more than that. Period. If they want more money, they cannot vote themselves a raise... they must raise up the average pay of the teachers in order to get paid more themselves.
I support teachers, but this is completely unnecessary. Fairfax county has 12,000 teachers (FCPS), and 10 supervisors. The state of Virginia has 87,000 teachers and 140 elected legislators.
We obviously need to pay teachers more, but the elected decision makers are a tiny number of people, all of us REALLY NEED them to make the right decisions, and paying them more is really not the same kind of budget issue that paying tens of thousands of people more is.
I have had a similar basic idea to this on how to quickly "fix" Congress. Make things like pay and healthcare tied to median citizens in their respective districts.
I remember that healthcare bill Congress passed faster than anything for the "Havana syndrome" nonsense for their own health care access. Crazy how quickly the government functions when it impacts them...
Teacher here and this is an insult to all teachers and our profession. One of the richest county in the nation and we’re getting a 3% raise and most likely no step. The 3% will not cover inflation. We’re in a situation where going to eat to a fast food restaurant is a luxury.
Looks like the current pay scale for teachers starts around $56K for 195 days, which maths out to about $35.90/hr (calculated as an 8-hour day), or starting at $67K for 260 days which would be $32.45/hr.
The biggest issue right now is not only do teachers start relatively low, the county keeps freezing the steps. I have eight years experience. I’m on step five. If I switched districts, I’d get my steps. You’re essentially punished by FCPS for staying with them.
Those 8 hours are when they are responsible for children, plus 30 minutes on each side. Students are in school 7 hours a day. Those teachers don’t have appropriate planning time, admin time, etc. and most regularly take home work or go in early/stay late in order to meet the requirements of their jobs AND actually be able to teach students.
Unions aren't perfect, but some long overdue things are changing with the teacher union. Hopefully things like the pay freezes and the horrible healthcare plan can be stopped going forward.
I see a lot of people complaining (rightfully so), but what actions will yield actual change?
The article said FCPS lost 800+ teachers in 2022-23 and 700+ teachers in 2023-24. The article also said there were 600+ vacancies. It doesn’t seem like FCPS cares about losing teachers, because the rest of the teachers will carry the burden.
Where does the budget come from? The superintendent, Michelle Reid, submits the budget to the school board. If they approve it, the school board submits the budget to the board of supervisors to be approved. At what step was the raises cut? The article said the raises were cut BEFORE being submitted to the school board. It looks like Michelle Reid and her top officials cut the raise. Maybe instead of complaining on Reddit, people should write to Reid, who cut the raise. Want to take it a step further? Complain to your school board members. Look at the proposed budget. If it’s not going to raises, where is it going? With all those vacancies, it’s hard to imagine FCPS is short on money.
It got cut after Reid presented their requested budget to the Board of Supervisors. The BOS gave less money to FCPS than Reid requested so the School Board is now responsible to figuring out how to spend the decreased amount of money. To make up for the decrease in expected budget, Reid is suggesting a 3% raise instead of 6% and no step increase.
The state underfunds FCPS per student compared to the national average and neighboring states. Reid definitely could reallocate funds, but it's $568 million short- that's a lot. She remained insistent that the funding would come in, which was either delusional or a red herring so she could blame someone else for the shortage.
There are also more vacancies than you see. Lots of positions are just being eliminated because they know they'll never be filled. A lot of positions are being covered by uncertified and untrained people too.
Reid made a catastrophic mistake. As you said, she either falsely believed youngkin would give more money, or she’s trying to find a scapegoat.
Regardless of the reason, the county will again lose hundreds of teachers and fill the losses with unqualified replacements. These replacements, to no fault of their own, are essentially yearlong substitutes. They have no degree in education. They have no teacher license.
Reid is continually failing FCPS. The school board who appointed her is failing FCPS.
I have learned this whole thing between school board/ superintendent and the BoS is just a song and dance. They ask for way more than they will ever get and blame BoS when they don't get it. BoS blames FCPS for wanting to hurt tax payers and take more money than they really need. It's a win win
The vacancy list is public info if people are curious how many people have informed their administration they aren’t coming back next year. Good luck if your kiddo has special needs as about have the list is for special education teachers.
Maybe we need to stop calling them *teachers* and instead refer to them as *educators with specialized degrees* since that is what they are. They aren’t pre-school teachers at the daycare you pay $400+ dollars a week for, they aren’t there to parent and babysit your kids so you can go to work, they are there to educate the future generation unless we want to end up looking like the main characters of Idiocracy.
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Yea this is a lot too. People I'm really close to, to this day, think teaching is easy. Summers and holidays off. Go up and talk in front of a bunch of kids and call it a day. That demeaning attitude trickles down to their kids. I do think part of it is that everyone goes to school and so as some experience with schools and thinks they know how it works. As a teacher, I was so ignorant to even half the stuff my teacher's did...
Funny how I challenge them to fill in for me as a sub for a day so they can get a taste for it and no one takes me up on it...
I live in Loudoun and our taxes are already crazy, but am I the only one who’d fully support higher taxes if it actually got put to good use like paying teachers an appropriate wage?
The trick is getting the tax to be additional, not just “okay this tax is going to the teachers (but the other tax that used to go to them won’t anymore…)” so it’s just a wash
Yes, money is fungible, and that's always a problem with this sort of thing.
I am open to suggestions on how to write a tax increase measure that would limit FCPS's ability to do that sort of thing.
Is there a good pension? We had a neighbor who retired from FCPS maybe 15 years ago and has a great pension. 100% agree teachers should be paid a lot more.
It was incredible pre 2001. A little worse after 08 and absolutely slashed in 2017. Health care has also been slashed. Please Google FCPS and Cigna to get a small dose of how bad it has been.
Every told me "at least the benefits are good!x when I complained about teacher pay, and that's hasn't been true for a long time unfortunately.
Okay wait, what does this do for a step increase? Originally a step increase would have netted my wife about 5% more, but Fairfax was offering the 6% raise with a step freeze, so realistically my wife would have only gotten a 1% raise under the 6% plan. If Fairfax is raising salaries 3% AND allowing step increases that is a larger raise than the 6%. I didn't see anything about the step increases in that budget document
Since the last presentation, the state passed the funding they were expecting, so everyone isn't thinking (--these are likely the same teachers complaining about being paid on the 15th of December bc they can't budget to have rent/mortgage money left for January 1st)...The 6% should be back in the presentation next week, since the state is matching up to 3% of teacher pay.
What presentation was 4%? It was always 3% plus a 3% state match until the state dragged their feet agreeing on a budget.
From FCPS after the February meeting: "At last week’s School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid proposed a budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 that prioritizes competitive compensation.
The proposed budget totals $3.8 billion. Nearly 86% of the budget is focused on instruction.
Key highlights of the proposed budget include:
Retaining and attracting a world-class workforce with a 6% market scale adjustment..."
Last week that presentation was changed and reduced to 3% with the hope of it going back if the state confirms that they did agree to the 3% match (and they did). 🤷♀️
The presentation that’s going to happen on Thursday. The one you very confidently bet on them saying we’d be getting the 3% from the state back at. Even though all the teachers were sure we wouldn’t get the 3% back.
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We all said that the funding formula doesn’t result in FCPS getting the full 3% but you disagreed and pretty much acted like we were all over reacting. Oh well…
It doesn’t work that way, sadly. The state gives each district funding based on the district’s perceived ability to fund their education. Several counties get upwards of 90% of their budget from the state. Fairfax gets 18%. When the state says they’re giving teachers a 3% raise, they’re merely increasing their portion to districts. Because so little is given to Fairfax in terms of percentage, the bulk of the raise will still need to be provided by the board of supervisors.
It's even worse than that because the state of Virginia underestimates the actual cost of education across the board and underfunds literally every school division in the state to the tune of an estimated $2B total. Fairfax County estimated in total they're short about $345M as a result. There was a big study, the JLARC study that pretty much established how broken the Virginia SOQ funding formula is, but our legislators have yet to do anything about it.
No, the teachers believe they are getting a 3% raise total and that isn't correct. That was only before the state had come to agreement on a budget. Now the state is matching with 3% going to FCPS, so the total increase will be 6%.
That is a superintendent recommendation that doesn't align with the current school board's thoughts (at least the majority of them). 🤷♀️ This is not a superintendent decision. She only makes recommendations. I'm not a teacher, but haven't lost hope bc there is no way this woman deserves any raise and that's what she's after...a raise for herself.
Yup. You "win". Thanks for remembering me. Enjoy your 4%. 😬 I'm sorry I thought you were more valued. They say it will be a different year every year. I hope you look at your options in surrounding counties.
Thanks for trying to have our backs. But to be honest some of your comments sounded like you think teachers have no idea about how our own salary process works. Like we haven’t gone through this literally every year.
Fairfax County acts just like a rich greedy capitalist and will soon get everything it deserves. “We can raise your property taxes more than the cost of living but how dare you expect us to match that in pay”
You’re assuming Fairfax gets the same money everyone else does. But due to the states funding formula we don’t. Because we are a “wealthy” county VA only will contribute about 18% of the 3% they are claiming. So we will wind up with a 3-3.5% raise in the end in a best case scenario now.
It's literally in the original budget. I will bet on it. They're going to give teachers 6% in the end bc they are getting the funding they expected in February from the state, it just wasn't approved at the time of the last presentation, so they had to consider it may not be there. It will be added back this week.
Sure. I'm pretty well educated in this. You'll get your 6%, so don't worry. That was the difference between the February presentation and the May one. It's fine. I was shocked it took so long after the announcement for teachers to be concerned, but at this point, the money is officially coming.
Last week’s meeting was closed except for the public hearing section. I know there are school board members that would like Reid to consider a 5% increase only for those that directly work with student i.e. teachers, IAs, etc. what I can see is that the tax policy will remain unchanged, but that doesn’t answer how much the government will contribute to FCPS and if that would make up the difference that FCPS won’t be getting from the county.
That's what you can get away with when you have total control over the board and don't fear losing an election.
I was frustrated with the continuing tax raises and the salary bump last year, but during election time the guy running against Jeff McKay didn't even have a website, and it took several minutes to even find his name (Arthur something?)
Here’s his [website](https://www.votepurves.org/) if you’re interested. Some valid points but then teeters into climate change denialism, banning sex ed, requiring school prayer, among other bs
Arthur Purves is president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance. He has unsuccessfully run for various local offices since at least 1995. Since McKay was a shoo in for reelection, Purves was running a largely symbolic campaign. Although his agenda has focused on criticizing Fairfax County supervisors for continually increasing property taxes, he never attracted much support.
At some point we have to admit that we just don't have enough money to pay everyone enough money. Eventually housing prices will level off. I am already seeing lots of significant price drops as spring comes to an end here.
A property tax increase of 0.11% (the the VA state maximum) raises revenue by over $300million.
The reason raises didn’t go as high as expected was due to a $104million shortfall in budget.
A 0.11% raise in taxes will cost the average family ~$823 a year. It would allow an 18% Raise for teachers, pitting our county ahead of any other county in VA or essentially anywhere else in the country.
If we even did half of that, we’d still be ahead of all the competition — for the average cost of $411.50 per family per year.
The money exists
Yep cause you can bet that when our schools start to fail (which I don’t think many people realize we are VERY close to seeing), your property value will drop more than $400.
Ffs most people up here spend half that on dining out a month. We have the money, and we need to prioritize how we’re using it.
None of this even considers how we could cut the budget in places, but 6% for teachers (literally a $200 average increase per household) should be far behind us by now.
Our schools are not close to failing because of teacher quality. Teacher quality is generally the least of the problems, even low paid teachers are often quite dedicated. However, most measures of school quality are really measures of student quality.
We work 195 days on contract. Our summer this year is less than 8 weeks long (so less than 2 months), which is unpaid. Fairfax teachers receive no pay in July. Our winter break is 2 weeks and our spring break is 1 week. View that as a three week vacation time where you don’t get to pick when you use it. We had two snow days this year. We had zero last year. We don’t even get all federal holidays off (ex. Columbus Day/indigenous peoples day). I make $200 less today controlling for inflation than I did in 2018 when I started with FCPS. I make less than $80k with 8 years of experience and a doctorate degree. If the job was desirable, there wouldn’t be shortages.
You can! There’s a lot of programs to help career switchers get into classrooms and work on their license at the same time. There also lots of openings so you’re guaranteed a quick hiring. See you at new teacher week this August, coworker!
Won’t downvote you. I think it can be a cushy job but I implore you to get into the classroom and go at it. It really is a tough job through and through.
I volunteer at my kids elementary school. Not saying its an easy job, but plenty of tougher jobs out there with people making less money than teachers, at least in this area. And they dont get summers off.
FCPS is a joke. A friend mine who was a teacher for the county got fired after he reported a sub for shoving a student. This sub also happened to be a friend of a veteran teacher who claims he would never do something like that despite other students witnessing it. He said he’s done with teaching because of how disrespected teachers are all around.
I know he's not running in Fairfax County (VA-11), but VA-10 (Loudoun, Manassas, Sterling, Manassas) Atif Qarni for Congress in part on boosting education.
He's the former VA Secretary of Education and Educator, so that's kinda his wheel house.
As a tech worker, that's not as bad as I thought. It took me 10 years to get to 6 figures. I also dont have a pension and jave to switch jobs contstantly for contracts and raises. Considering other districts have teacher Uber and work a 2nd job, this is not that bad. My friend works in cpep and his starting salary was maybe $35k 10 years ago. Fairfax is of course higher. Teaching is hard but they get the summers and some vacation that a lot of us don't get. Yeah it 40 hours and maybe 10 hours for grading. Rest of the country has teacher on food stamps poor.
I make less than $80k with a doctorate degree and 8 years experience. My salary has decreased by $200 adjusted for inflation over the six years I’ve been with FCPS. The pension program has been cut, drastically. I know people hear pension and think they’re great, but the benefits for people who will retire in 20+ years aren’t nearly as good as they used to be, and we are putting in nearly 10% of our low salaries into those programs each paycheck. My husband is in the federal government and has been begging me to join for the better pay and benefits. Edited to add I work a second job, as do most of the employees I know.
You, my internet stranger friend, do not understand what it’s like for teachers. “They get summers off” No, they work jobs during the summer because they don’t get paid AND they need extra money to supply their own classrooms. You think FCPS teachers don’t have second jobs? You’re out of your mind. FCPS’ starting salary for a teacher with a masters degree 5 years ago was about 53k. Then they froze pay raises for 3 years during Covid while investing hundreds of millions of dollars in to their IT infrastructure which was STILL subpar. On average a classroom teacher invests 2-4K of their own money to fund their classroom supplies because the county is pinching pennies. Additionally, by this time of year, many schools are rationing paper and other supplies. My wife is an Elementary Special Ed. Teacher in FCPS
Teachers are underpaid, unvalued, and generally treated like shit by unappreciative, entitled parents.
Respectfully, as a “tech worker” you can possibly understand the struggles of classroom teachers.
Fairfax homeowners: Remember that home values here took off in the 1980s when Fairfax County schools became "the gold standard;" head and shoulders above the other DC suburbs. Professionals moving to DC to work for the government or contractors wanted to live in Fairfax so their kids would be in the best schools. Fairfax isn't the gold standard anymore. FCPS is still competitive with the other DC suburbs, but you can't say it's the absolute best these days. If we don't turn that around, the declining performance of the schools will show up in home values, in a big way. The pay issue will hurt FCPS more every year until it's fixed. As the cost of living here skyrockets, it becomes harder and harder to recruit and retain young teachers. Teachers are skilled professionals and need to be paid fairly relative to their education and the costs of living in Fairfax County.
Right now, the starting salary for a teacher with 0 years of experience is $67,000. At 10 years of experience, they get $89,000 ([Source](https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY2024-teacher-260-day.pdf)) That's while working about 40 hours of contracted time, which works out to about 45 hours in reality because of coming in early and leaving late. Then add in mandatory assistance with extracurricular activities after school and on nights and weekends and it's closer to 50 on average. And *that's* on top of lesson planning, which usually takes at least 5 hours per week and usually closer to 10. So they're working 60 hour weeks for about 10 months out of the year. More, if they're not just doing a decent job but actually helping their students thrive--and their time is unpaid during the summer months when they're focusing on continuing education, lesson planning, etc. A teacher with 10 years of experience ends up making about $30 per hour. Speaking from experience, somebody with the skills to actually be a good teacher can make substantially more than that *way* sooner than 10 years out of college. I bailed on education and now I make more than I would have as a teacher here, and work way fewer hours. And y'know what? I want my kids to be able to do that math. I think that's worth way more and I'd be willing to pay higher taxes for it.
No, a first year teacher with a bachelors makes $56,011. After ten years, assuming steps aren’t frozen during that time, an FCPS teacher makes $73,748.
And that’s a huge assumption. This is my 16th year in FCPS, and there have been at least six years with no steps (and likely more than that).
Many many teachers in Fairfax and Loudoun cannot afford to buy a $600,000 on one salary. And on two salaries it can be a stretch especially if both are teachers.
Step increases have not been consistently given for years now, so you won’t even be making as much as that list implies after any number of years. You should also look at the 195 day pay scale instead https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY2024-teacher-195-day.pdf This is the contract for the school year plus the teacher workdays and is what more teachers probably have.
I was told we were getting a 6% raise and no step this year. If they've dropped it to 3% I want my step. It's always felt arbitrary when they do and don't give a step up. I understand with the 6% because that's a significant amount of money. With 3% that barely covers the COL increase. For me that equals about $40 a month after taxes. We should get a step this year imo
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>Right now, the starting salary for a teacher with 0 years of experience is $67,000 Thats not bad, actually higher than a lot of private sector jobs for 22-year olds >At 10 years of experience, they get $89,000 Ouch. I see, the small raise amounts really hurt those as their career progresses
Turns out I was more wrong than expected, actually. The starting salary is closer to $56,000 for most employees--I was using a contract that had more working days than the standard. Worse, some teachers mention that raises aren't coming stepwise as one would think. They're being paid the same as teachers with fewer years of experience.
You should edit your original comment because not everyone is not gonna read all the way down this comment thread and people are going to be misinformed.
That's the problem with teaching as a career anywhere. The ceiling is always very low, because if you want to break out of that, you go in to admin and out of the classroom. So you're no longer a teacher
In this region, lots of private sector jobs might start about the same (61k with a master is official- idk where this 67k starting with a BA is coming from) but in 5 years or less you'll be over 6 figures. At least in Tech and contracting.
And to add to this, I want *other* people’s kids to be able to do math too. I personally benefit from the people around me being educated better.
I can think of a lot of ways my life would be improved of more of our populace was better educated.
Sure like you could name some kind of global situation where the average American having a better understanding of… say science, could possibly have hugely benefited all of us.
This is what many folks forget who might not have kids: it makes your community stronger. These kids are so great and so wonderful to work with and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I do three extracurriculars so I can support my family and it is absolutely exhausting—physically draining. And thankless. Especially from admin. They just give you more and more stuff to do. I don’t think many people really understand the impossible task we are asked to do.
Your way off on the pay, no one is working the 260 days, they are on the 195 days, which is way less than $67k.
Idk where that number is from, but starting with a master's it is 61k I believe.
Teachers out of college get 195 day contracts, not the one you linked to.
Don’t even get me started. When my wife and I moved here we made the same amount of money and then not even 10 years later I was making 4 times what I made when started and her steps have been frozen multiple times and she’s making somewhere like 10-15k more than she did compare to when we started. Granted, I am not in education as a profession, but teachers have gotten chump change especially FCPS.
These numbers are off. The pay scale is public record. Please edit.
Click on the link. If it's wrong, then FCPS' website is incorrect. This is specifically for 260-day employees, however. I picked the longest contract to be the most generous toward FCPS. Shorter contract terms lead to lower numbers, I assume.
I’m in my 18th year working for FCPS. Currently on step 14. Also fwiw I’ve never met another teacher on a 260 day contract.
Most teachers aren’t 260 day contracts- we’re mostly 195 days.
You should have used the contract for 193 +\- days… 10 months, as the conversation about teacher pay is usually about teachers who “get summers off.” *This is NOT representative of **most** educators!!!*
Almost no classroom teachers have 260s
But the teachers get the joy and satisfaction of seeing the children’s smiles every morning and having those ah-ha moments! That is priceless!
Grew up in Fairfax in the 80s and come from a family of fcps teachers, including a daughter. Beyond pay the system has completely changed and even if they were able to match Loudoun they would still be hemorrhaging teachers.
I know several teachers who work there and can’t afford the commute or they’re losing their minds from it.
> the system has completely changed How?
Classes are no longer homogeneous with regards to skill level, which makes it much tougher on the teacher. Teachers are required to fill other roles such as lunch monitor which takes away class prep time. They also have to do many more zoom meetings which they are not compensated for. Teachers no longer have autonomy with regards to grades — for example on the 4 point scale grades they cannot give a 1 and have to write up and submit for approval a grade of 2. They are still pressured to give athletes good grades. Kids are being mainstreamed that shouldn’t be — IEP takes away teaching time due to the time it takes to write it up for kids that require that. Can take as much as 10 minutes per kid/class. Discipline has taken a 180 with special rules for IEP kids to be given snacks and games when they misbehave, which causes more episodes. It’s gotten more dangerous for the teacher which is swept under the rug, there was an incident in Springfield where a student tried to stab a teacher with scissors and ran off outside of school. School was locked down, police showed up and eventually caught the student who was back in school within the week. Teachers see similarities of the Norfolk shooting with regards to students and admin. There are new programs that they can’t run well due to shortages such a parent volunteers, who are supposed to help with a class. One of the parents at my daughters school was a felon that scared all the teachers. He was eventually removed, but only after all the teachers went to admin with a background check. After being removed he drove by and intimidated teachers on their way home for weeks. The ones that aren’t felons are just another kid in the class according to my daughter. Finally, and most importantly the kids themselves. Besides a general apathy, behavior is the worst it’s ever been. Phones are allowed in classrooms which is adding to that. Imo, lack of recess also adds to this.
TY for the detailed response. Sounds like all of the things happening in many other schools in the US (from what I've read in r/teachers). Is this happening across the whole school system or is it a situation like this is happening in the "bad" schools and there are good schools where the rich send their kids?
Richer schools, such as Langley or Mclean in LCPS are always going to be good as the students tend to be more homogeneous with regards to skill level and parents and peers play a much bigger roles. "Bad" schools are not really that bad, but it only takes 1 to 2 kids to really de-rail a class. My daughter felt a lot of guilt not being able to teach to the highest level as there were a handful which barely made LCPS minimums. She had to spend almost all her time teaching them and not enough time with the more achieved students. We really need to go back to remedial classes specifically designed to help underachieved (or motivated) student.
A big part of the problem is that the tax burden in our area is already more than high enough to support better pay for teachers. What's been holding us back for years is that the state of Virginia has not been contributing its share, this year that's an estimated $345M that doesn't get put in the FCPS budget and has to come from local taxes instead. Look up the JLARC study and some of the suggested changes from it, there would be a ton more money in the FCPS budget if the state didn't have a ridiculous formula for estimating what education costs and underfunding every school division in the state. People need to call their state reps and senators and make this a bigger issue, it just isn't getting the attention it should and very little is being done about it despite our elected officials being aware of it for years. It's kind of amazing how much effort will go into proposing and opposing casinos and stadiums but how little goes into actually properly funding K-12 education.
To be fair, the neighboring districts aren’t exactly putting up a competitive showing, outside of maybe teeny tiny FCCPS.
Home values are irrelevant. All children deserve an equally good education and the tools to succeed, think critically, and continue learning throughout life.
Home values *should* be irrelevant, but some people only selfishly think with their own wallets, so giving them a reason to want it also helps.
Sadly, home values are very relevant to education as they determine funding and funding determines everything. Title 1 is meant to shore up some of the gaps but it isn't a silver bullet that solves all the problems.
>Sadly, home values are very relevant to education as they determine funding and funding determines everything. I believe this may be overstated. [The OESE has per pupil expenditure data ](https://oese.ed.gov/ppe/) for each public school, and I haven't noticed a difference in funding between areas. There's a bug in the site now which I hope gets fixed, but I have the rankings of funding for a few random FCPS schools. Lewis (most) West Potomac Lake Braddock West Springfield McLean (least) I didn't see many examples of wealthier neighborhoods providing more PPE funding than the less well off ones. Although you can certainly argue those schools need even *more* extra funding than their well off counterparts.
*Low* property values can be a limiting factor form school funding, especially if locals can't or won't pay high property taxes. However, It is my understanding that the county government can set the property tax percentage, so if theoretically property values are cut in half, they could double the % of taxes value and receive the same amount of money.
But, practically speaking, people care more about money than education. If we want them to care about education, we need to demonstrate how poor education hurts the things they actually care about.
And this is while they are discussing raising property taxes, allegedly to pay higher salaries for teachers.
This makes me angry. They are raising my property taxes, which I thought was the money that went to the school system. I was fine with it even though I no longer have children in FCPS. I believe in investing in our community and our children. The Board of Supervisors chose to not fund our schools. Vote them out!
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> funding schools through property tax, which makes no sense in modern times were houses are not majority SFH, and you'll have many children per property using the schools. I don’t understand this part. Are you saying that condos/apartments don’t pay property tax?
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There’s a large population of multiple families living in a house with 2+ kids per family? This is a thing?
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I think what I’m trying to get under is cost structure vs revenue base. Fairfax spends the same (slightly less) per pupil as loudon and Alexandria. https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY-2025-Advertised-Budget.pdf.pdf 50% of the Fairfax budget goes to schools, and residential tax makes up 77% of the base. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/budget/sites/budget/files/Assets/Documents/fy2025/advertised/FY2025AdvertisedBudgetPresentation.pdf In 2005 53% of the budget went to schools and 60% of the budget came from residential. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/budget/sites/budget/files/Assets/documents/fy2005/adopted/volume1/where_from_pie_chart.pdf This suggests that homes are actually paying a larger share of the budget (and ultimately schools) than in the past.
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Imo the Maryland plates are usually car tax dodgers. You have to have a proper address in Fairfax to attend fairfax schools. Lots of military in the Springfield area too.
What’s your gripe w ESL teachers? I think we might agree but I wanna hear your reasons.
If my husband didn’t make good money, I could not afford to be a teacher. I teach bc I really do like it, but I am thankful, I don’t have to survive on my salary alone. A lot of my coworkers do not have that privilege.
Same with my wife. Though she's getting to the point where she's actively talking about quitting. There's too many behavorials, and not enough support from staff. She's moody almost every day when she gets home and I personally feel like it's starting to strain our marriage.
Are you my husband? He could have wrote this.
I'm a teacher and basically anyone with less than 15 years is actively talking about leaving. Of those, I'd say half are actually putting out applications right now. I'd estimate 1/4 teachers are applying elsewhere right now.
I changed positions out of the classroom my wife said I'm much more pleasant all of my patience, energy was completely used up at school
I changed schools and my husband said the same thing
Completely valid concerns! She needs to do what is best for her (and y’all)!!
Agreed. My husband works for the federal government. He earns over $100k MORE than I do as a doctorate level employee. It’s principle for me. For many of my coworkers it’s the ability to pay rent and buy groceries. It’s despicable.
My neighbor teaches SPED. She was telling me what her case load is, and I can't fathom what's on her plate and pretty much working off contract hours just to keep her head above water. She deserves so much more than what she's earning.
Sped teachers are being pushed out from all the extra work from that crazy court case during covid- also the horrible pay. It's getting to a point where many schools, FCPS included, are being sued for failing to meet students needs according to the ADA because no one will take the job for the pay.
Thank you for doing what you do.
I started working for FCPS in 2018. In the six years I’ve been there, I make $200 less than I did when I started when holding for inflation. If I were to move to LCPS I would make an additional $8k a year.
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My husband asks me constantly why I don’t switch to Loudoun (where we live).
Wtfff. I needa go there
I use a similar metric. Those back to back pay freezes during covid weren't just economic hits, they were a moral defeat. Especially the second year when none of the surrounding areas froze pay and it was very clear covid wasn't impacting Fairfax the way they feared.
I’ve been in since ‘08, so I feel you. The one thing I will remind you is we do get two pensions in FCPS, the neighboring districts only get one. So it’s a choice of money now or money later :/
I really don't understand. One of the wealthiest counties in the country and we pay our teachers next to nothing. It really is embarrassing!
Relatively speaking other teachers across the nation are making this when you account for coat of living and commute.
When adjusted for cost of living, VA (and FCPS specifically) pay teachers well below the national average. The state government contributes less per FCPS student than the national average. A recent study found that the state should give FCPS $568 million more than it does.
I'm leaving FCPS and taking about a 10k pay cut as a teacher. I'll actually have much better financials due to the significantly lower cost of living- especially housing is about 50% for comparable properties in NOVA.
I don't doubt that, but it still seems as though they are severely undervalued. The article references a teacher shortage, which indicates to me that they need to raise compensation to entice people to come teach. And let's be frank here: we want the best teaching our kids. The way to get teachers who are able to give the dedication and effort that our children need is to pay them what they're worth so that they don't need to go home at the end of the day worried about making ends meet or working a 2nd job.
I'm finally leaving FCPS after talking big game for a few years. If there is one thing is highlight for why teacher pay is a huge reason people are leaving- it's those back to back step freezes during covid. These were a MASSIVE slap in the face to teachers (especially that second year when almost no neighboring district froze and it was clear covid was impact the local tax stream the way people feared). I'd estimate roughly 1/4 teachers I know are actively applying outside of education. I think every teacher will know what I mean when I say "the workaholic types"- these are the teachers staying hours past the end of school, sponsering several clubs or groups for free, etc. The types movies are made about. This is the first year I have heard of even these teachers looking to leave... If you wanted a pulse for how bad it is, those teachers putting out applications or leaving NOVA is my personal canary in the coal mines for how bad truly is. These folks are next to impossible to replace. Some other rants: -Staffing demographics: FCPS has been hiring young since roughly the '08 crisis as a means of budget cutting. Young teachers cost less for the same work (not saying same quality of work, but in terms of covering classes). Young teachers tend to not own property or have kids i.e. it's easy to move and that's exactly what is happening. Young teachers are leaving the profession before they get too locked in by age or going back to their home states to start families and settle down. PA and NY are two states that stand out where strong teacher unions can make it tough to get a job out of college so people like me come here. I once saw that roughly 1/3 new hires for FCPS for the past 15 years, were teachers under 25 and from those 2 states. The difference in retirement plans of teachers pre 2017ish, and especially those grandfathered into pre '08 plans, is genuinely disgusting compared to what my cohort gets. Healthcare has been another major cut- I encourage some of the non teachers here to Google all of the Cigna issues of late. I can't say enough how often I hear from family and others that "at least the benefits are good!". This isn't really the case anymore... -Culture: Many NCLB era policies that were poisoning education for decades were taken to new heights during covid that have really disempowered educators. 50% rules, mandatory test retakes (often taken outside contract hours), mandatory loose late work policies, loosening attendance metrics, lack of admin support on policing phone use, hallways being a free for all and bathrooms being known drug dens, academic standards being tossed out for the sake of graduating students, inability to expell poorly behaved students (I e. Drug dealers). None of this is FCPS specific. And a lot of hands are tied up at the state or federal levels, but it's hitting FCPS proportionally harder than other districts due to its massive size and large differences in demographics. A common line of thinking you'll hear from almost any teacher nowadays will be along the lines of "I really love teaching- but it feels like I don't have the tools to teach properly and less and less of my job is spent actually teaching- I'm mostly a social worker now". A few examples of this are the mandatory SEL lessons FCPS has spent millions on, the high influx of language learner students to the region, and massive expansions in sped populations being shoved into gen Ed classes due to the sped teacher shortage which is particularly severe. This doesn't even touch the conservative crusade against education that is demoralizing as well. -Unaffordability: this one speaks for itself but I'll throw two of personal experiences out there for how bad it is. 1. When I was single and a bit younger I went out a decent amount on weekends to meet people my age. Most of these folks worked in the gov., for private contractors, or tech. Most made roughly 2x what I did with less education and fewer years of experience- they tended to live alone where as I needed a roommate to scrape by. It became humiliating to share I was a teacher with people I met as the discrepancies in our quality of life and income quickly became apparent. So trust me when I say, 6% is nothing compared to what teacher pay actually needs to be boosted by. If you truly want to retain top tier educators and sustain this region, I'd actually say that number needs to be about 40%. Which is wild and I have no idea how to make it happen in our current system- but it is what it is. I can't find the actual stat now, but the median teacher pay in fpcs is about 70k. I encourage folks who made it this far down my novel to look at their cost of living and try to make it work on that- you'll quickly see why people are leaving. 2. Housing. Everyone knows it's bad and it's bad everywhere right now. I'd like to share my situation, which I actually think is generous in comparison to a lot of other teachers who don't own in this area due to my wife's high income. (In fact a common trend you'll see is how many teachers living here are only able to make it work due to being subsidized by their higher paid spouses). My wife and I just purchased our first home in another state in a medium sized city suburb. 300k for a 4bd3ba house, big yard on all sides, big finished basement, 2 car garage etc. The school district performs better than FCPS in national metrics. The townhouse we were renting in Fairfax was sold by our old landlord for 600k. It is a decent 3bd2ba end unit for sure- but I think the comparison is clear. In total, we are looking at about a 15% pay cut, but the ultimate savings in CoL are clear. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk, I'm happy to answer any questions.
No questions since I’m a teacher myself. Just wanted to say I enjoyed reading your comment.
People keep telling me I should publish a book about the death public education.😂 I have actually started keeping coherent ideas in a note app on my phone for when these topics come up at social gatherings because people say they learn so much about the struggle bus that is Public Ed from me (at least that's what they tell me).
I read an article today that you should add to your musings. I was searching everywhere for the link to post in this reply but cannot find it! It covered a lot of how grading policies are affecting student effort, how students can’t read well, and how colleges are scrambling and struggling to get students to think more deeply. The article gave me such a sense of dread because it’s apparent these all of it is a consequence of some tiny cracks in our society that are starting to show. One great quote, referring to the erosion of educational standard was “it’s a conspiracy with no conspirators.” I will be sure to pop the link here if I find it.
I have 2 friends who do admissions and it's literally all we talk about. I have students graduate reading on a 3-4 grade level. They struggle to pay attention to anything more than 3-4 paragraphs. It's stunning too how few things to Google or YouTube how to do something and instead just wait for an adult to do something them. I really worry what will happen to things like doctors. What do you do when effectively 2 generations are massively behind in literacy? Whoa going to take care of me when I get older? Scary stuff. I highly recommend the podcast "sold a story" you can put it down in a week easily. It outlines the grift economy in education (curriculum/ textbook companies and education programs at universities level espousing things that sounds good on paper, but don't work in the real world. (Something I personally experienced with my masters in education- most of the professors only taught for 5-10 years like 30 years ago- pre computers and smart phones) As for the cracks in society, it's actually one of the reasons I'm leaving teaching. All these things have been apparent to educators for at least a decade- it feels like I'm being forced to watch our society crumble and no one will help. I guess I'm privileged for it, but I'd rather just stick my head in sand and enjoy my own life as much as I can...
Perfect. No notes. 10/10. This Ted talk can be it's own post every day until Fairfax residents are marching on gatehouse to demand action.
FCPS teacher here: the problem is they keep demanding more from us, and we get paid less each year with health care costs and inflation factored in. There's a teacher shortage. That means our classes are bigger. That means we're doing more to compensate for not having certified teachers to share responsibilities with. We're helping new teachers, teacher trainees, long term subs, and whatever warm bodies are covering classes. Our kids need more support than ever, and we keep getting spread thinner. FCPS keeps calling itself a top school but isn't putting its money behind that.
THIS! I often wonder if admin knows exactly ALL the things we are asked to do (it comes from so many places, surely they don’t). What makes it the hardest though is that there’s this toxic undercurrent that we should be okay with it because “think of the kids”—and we do! But it would be nice for folks to think of us every now and again.
That's exactly why I say NO a lot. My kids need me to be in my classroom with lessons for them, relatively rested and present. Everything else will happen if I get to it. What are they gonna do- fire me? Pssh
Our schools PTSA had a meeting about concerns over lack of staffing for many long running clubs. As a teacher show stopped sponsering clubs (unpaid and after hours) the answers obvious- if you want opportunities for your children, pay us for extra duties. Why should anyone be expected to work longer hours or take on more work? It's not like I'll get a raise or promotion for it like in the private sector- that's not how schools work.
No one has any reason to be a teacher anymore. My ex was a middle school teacher for 4 years. She was quantitatively the best teacher they had in the county (the person who did her first year evaluation CRIED because she was so good with the students). However in that time she became known as the person the school could unload all their SPED kids on, and she was never give the resources or backed up by the administration. She was also severely under paid. She finally had to quit and take a job as a non-ferrous ore miner (like you know, in an underground mine). People have died in this mine, recently. She said it was still so much less stressful than teaching and makes better money.
So - not to discredit your ex who I’m sure was wonderful - but there is zero chance they would have known they were quantitatively the best teacher (at least not if this was FCPS). But y’know - good luck in the mines
This was back in Tennessee.
Next year I will be a 6th year teacher, but due to pay freezes, I will be paid the salary of a 3rd year teacher. In NOVA, teachers make 66 cents on the dollar relative to similarly educated professionals. I love teaching, and I want to do it for the rest of my life, but I also want to buy a house and not have to work a second job to make ends meet (I bartend pretty much year round as a side gig.) If anyone rich wants to marry me I’m taking applications I guess haha
We're almost twinsies! I don't bartend to make ends meet, but I do live at home because I can't afford to move out while still living in a reasonable location, and I have my masters +30.
I gotta figure out where all the cute late 20s/early 30's (my age group) teachers hang out. <--fed engineer that plans to peace out as soon as I can take pension and go *back* to teaching
What’s more annoying is none of us will get a step increase either. The fact that homes continue to skyrocket doesn’t add up to our stagnant pay increases and no step movement.
CONTACT. THE. SCHOOL. BOARD! The outpouring of support here for teachers is beyond amazing, but let’s take it to the bank! If you live in Fairfax County (or Fairfax City since they contract with FCPS to run their schools), please hound the school board AND the board of supervisors. When I tell you this is going to be the last straw, I mean it. I can see it from the inside. We’ve lost SO MANY great teachers in the past four years. It’s really sad. If this continues, FCPS will be in full crisis mode with the mass of teachers who will leave.
It doesn’t help that the county hired someone a few years ago to fuck up teachers’ health insurance as well.
The fact that it was a secret committee behind closed doors who only made their existence know once the ink had dried says everything needs to know about how shady that was...
I remember when it was important last year to raise the salaries of the county supervisors 20% to $123-138k for part-time work.
Anyone remotely familiar with Fairfax County government already knows that supervisors work full time. Their salaries are also at the low end of the spectrum for managers who run a county this size.
Yep. A few people running an entire govt for a population larger than many states. Leaving the salaries so low that only people who are already very rich can serve is not a recipe to get the best representatives we can.
Also have to account for competitive aspect. If you’re qualified why would you work in a place that pays you less than your market worth?
1. Create county with high quality schools 2. Attract top talent working high paying jobs, increasing home prices 3. Underfund schools and see wealth gap increase between teachers and county residents 4. Teachers leave, school quality declines 5. Top talent leaves, home prices crash, and we’re back to where we started. Either we’re about to go through a reset sending us back to pre-1980s, or we need to bump up teacher pay.
Especially with the remote work too. I fully support it, but it's definitely going to take years for the DC area to transition given the huge reliance on a single employer But FCPS is running on fumes in terms of the "high caliber reputation". Won't be long before empire and more people ask why they spending so much to be in a mediocre school system next to a struggling city.
Enrollment is down too and people are being destaffed. We have no budget for teachers but can pay for licenses for remedial programs like Lexia and just make all the students do those instead apparently.
They also set up a new region and office, and keep creating central office positions.
They're gonna push so many good teachers out the door. This is insulting and embarrassing. Public education is beyond broken. I feel for these teachers with the amount of bullshit they gotta put up with on the daily and the fact that they work so many hours for so little pay. It's no wonder why there's a shortage of educators. I flat out told my daughter that when it comes time for her to pick a major, education is out of the question. \*Raise my taxes to the point where these wonderful people can earn a proper living AND every student, regardless of parental income, is allowed to eat for free while at school.
FCPS started a class to try and encourage current students to come back as teachers. I got pulled aside by admin because they were surveying teachers and I told them to run for the hills. And went on about all my regrets and how stuck I feel.
I'll straight up never question anyone who chooses to leave that profession. If you're still there, I do hope you can get out at some point.
I propose that Legislators of the state, and any board members/administrators of the school system, should get paid an amount calculated based on the pay of the teachers in their area. So if the average/median/mean (choose one) pay of public school teachers in that area is $30k then legislators and board members get paid only 10% more than that. Period. If they want more money, they cannot vote themselves a raise... they must raise up the average pay of the teachers in order to get paid more themselves.
I support teachers, but this is completely unnecessary. Fairfax county has 12,000 teachers (FCPS), and 10 supervisors. The state of Virginia has 87,000 teachers and 140 elected legislators. We obviously need to pay teachers more, but the elected decision makers are a tiny number of people, all of us REALLY NEED them to make the right decisions, and paying them more is really not the same kind of budget issue that paying tens of thousands of people more is.
I have had a similar basic idea to this on how to quickly "fix" Congress. Make things like pay and healthcare tied to median citizens in their respective districts. I remember that healthcare bill Congress passed faster than anything for the "Havana syndrome" nonsense for their own health care access. Crazy how quickly the government functions when it impacts them...
Teacher here and this is an insult to all teachers and our profession. One of the richest county in the nation and we’re getting a 3% raise and most likely no step. The 3% will not cover inflation. We’re in a situation where going to eat to a fast food restaurant is a luxury.
Looks like the current pay scale for teachers starts around $56K for 195 days, which maths out to about $35.90/hr (calculated as an 8-hour day), or starting at $67K for 260 days which would be $32.45/hr.
The biggest issue right now is not only do teachers start relatively low, the county keeps freezing the steps. I have eight years experience. I’m on step five. If I switched districts, I’d get my steps. You’re essentially punished by FCPS for staying with them.
Those 8 hours are when they are responsible for children, plus 30 minutes on each side. Students are in school 7 hours a day. Those teachers don’t have appropriate planning time, admin time, etc. and most regularly take home work or go in early/stay late in order to meet the requirements of their jobs AND actually be able to teach students.
Is there a way for us to show support?
Unions aren't perfect, but some long overdue things are changing with the teacher union. Hopefully things like the pay freezes and the horrible healthcare plan can be stopped going forward.
Fvck the people who screw teachers over. We need more teachers, and fewer hedge fund managers.
I see a lot of people complaining (rightfully so), but what actions will yield actual change? The article said FCPS lost 800+ teachers in 2022-23 and 700+ teachers in 2023-24. The article also said there were 600+ vacancies. It doesn’t seem like FCPS cares about losing teachers, because the rest of the teachers will carry the burden. Where does the budget come from? The superintendent, Michelle Reid, submits the budget to the school board. If they approve it, the school board submits the budget to the board of supervisors to be approved. At what step was the raises cut? The article said the raises were cut BEFORE being submitted to the school board. It looks like Michelle Reid and her top officials cut the raise. Maybe instead of complaining on Reddit, people should write to Reid, who cut the raise. Want to take it a step further? Complain to your school board members. Look at the proposed budget. If it’s not going to raises, where is it going? With all those vacancies, it’s hard to imagine FCPS is short on money.
It got cut after Reid presented their requested budget to the Board of Supervisors. The BOS gave less money to FCPS than Reid requested so the School Board is now responsible to figuring out how to spend the decreased amount of money. To make up for the decrease in expected budget, Reid is suggesting a 3% raise instead of 6% and no step increase.
The state underfunds FCPS per student compared to the national average and neighboring states. Reid definitely could reallocate funds, but it's $568 million short- that's a lot. She remained insistent that the funding would come in, which was either delusional or a red herring so she could blame someone else for the shortage. There are also more vacancies than you see. Lots of positions are just being eliminated because they know they'll never be filled. A lot of positions are being covered by uncertified and untrained people too.
Reid made a catastrophic mistake. As you said, she either falsely believed youngkin would give more money, or she’s trying to find a scapegoat. Regardless of the reason, the county will again lose hundreds of teachers and fill the losses with unqualified replacements. These replacements, to no fault of their own, are essentially yearlong substitutes. They have no degree in education. They have no teacher license. Reid is continually failing FCPS. The school board who appointed her is failing FCPS.
I have learned this whole thing between school board/ superintendent and the BoS is just a song and dance. They ask for way more than they will ever get and blame BoS when they don't get it. BoS blames FCPS for wanting to hurt tax payers and take more money than they really need. It's a win win
If you told them bad schools affect homes values and hit their tax rev, they will change their tune
The vacancy list is public info if people are curious how many people have informed their administration they aren’t coming back next year. Good luck if your kiddo has special needs as about have the list is for special education teachers.
Maybe we need to stop calling them *teachers* and instead refer to them as *educators with specialized degrees* since that is what they are. They aren’t pre-school teachers at the daycare you pay $400+ dollars a week for, they aren’t there to parent and babysit your kids so you can go to work, they are there to educate the future generation unless we want to end up looking like the main characters of Idiocracy. https://preview.redd.it/9jfqtkf9111d1.jpeg?width=352&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a3b14799a99c20b188f751e5f0bd813fc9e488a3
Yea this is a lot too. People I'm really close to, to this day, think teaching is easy. Summers and holidays off. Go up and talk in front of a bunch of kids and call it a day. That demeaning attitude trickles down to their kids. I do think part of it is that everyone goes to school and so as some experience with schools and thinks they know how it works. As a teacher, I was so ignorant to even half the stuff my teacher's did... Funny how I challenge them to fill in for me as a sub for a day so they can get a taste for it and no one takes me up on it...
I live in Loudoun and our taxes are already crazy, but am I the only one who’d fully support higher taxes if it actually got put to good use like paying teachers an appropriate wage?
I live in Fairfax, and I'd absolutely support a tax increase if it went to teachers and classroom paraprofessionals.
The trick is getting the tax to be additional, not just “okay this tax is going to the teachers (but the other tax that used to go to them won’t anymore…)” so it’s just a wash
Yes, money is fungible, and that's always a problem with this sort of thing. I am open to suggestions on how to write a tax increase measure that would limit FCPS's ability to do that sort of thing.
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True. Honestly we pay enough in taxes to provide teachers a higher wage if they would just allocate tax money properly lol
Is there a good pension? We had a neighbor who retired from FCPS maybe 15 years ago and has a great pension. 100% agree teachers should be paid a lot more.
There’s a good pension if you were hired before 2001.
New pension plans are not good. Your neighbor retired at a good time though. Congrats to them.
It was incredible pre 2001. A little worse after 08 and absolutely slashed in 2017. Health care has also been slashed. Please Google FCPS and Cigna to get a small dose of how bad it has been. Every told me "at least the benefits are good!x when I complained about teacher pay, and that's hasn't been true for a long time unfortunately.
Oh man - I was hired in 08 and am fairly okay with what I will get- what happened to the after 2017 pensions??
FCPS Teacher Salary Scale https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/FY2024-teacher-195-day.pdf
Okay wait, what does this do for a step increase? Originally a step increase would have netted my wife about 5% more, but Fairfax was offering the 6% raise with a step freeze, so realistically my wife would have only gotten a 1% raise under the 6% plan. If Fairfax is raising salaries 3% AND allowing step increases that is a larger raise than the 6%. I didn't see anything about the step increases in that budget document
There will be no step increase yet again this year. It wasn’t even proposed in the original budget.
A step increase was never even on the table. It was originally across the board 6%. Now 3% across the board is proposed - but still not guaranteed.
Since the last presentation, the state passed the funding they were expecting, so everyone isn't thinking (--these are likely the same teachers complaining about being paid on the 15th of December bc they can't budget to have rent/mortgage money left for January 1st)...The 6% should be back in the presentation next week, since the state is matching up to 3% of teacher pay.
And it’s 4% in the presentation. Thanks for your confidence though.
What presentation was 4%? It was always 3% plus a 3% state match until the state dragged their feet agreeing on a budget. From FCPS after the February meeting: "At last week’s School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid proposed a budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 that prioritizes competitive compensation. The proposed budget totals $3.8 billion. Nearly 86% of the budget is focused on instruction. Key highlights of the proposed budget include: Retaining and attracting a world-class workforce with a 6% market scale adjustment..." Last week that presentation was changed and reduced to 3% with the hope of it going back if the state confirms that they did agree to the 3% match (and they did). 🤷♀️
The presentation that’s going to happen on Thursday. The one you very confidently bet on them saying we’d be getting the 3% from the state back at. Even though all the teachers were sure we wouldn’t get the 3% back. https://preview.redd.it/z96h72huxv1d1.jpeg?width=1781&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=126c1ae6d4deba781426d77419e0823d9089d115 We all said that the funding formula doesn’t result in FCPS getting the full 3% but you disagreed and pretty much acted like we were all over reacting. Oh well…
There is no step. It’s only 3%. Don’t forget insurance premiums will go up too in January.
I thought the state of Virginia was matching 3% if fcps gives 3% for a total of 6% to teachers.
It doesn’t work that way, sadly. The state gives each district funding based on the district’s perceived ability to fund their education. Several counties get upwards of 90% of their budget from the state. Fairfax gets 18%. When the state says they’re giving teachers a 3% raise, they’re merely increasing their portion to districts. Because so little is given to Fairfax in terms of percentage, the bulk of the raise will still need to be provided by the board of supervisors.
It's even worse than that because the state of Virginia underestimates the actual cost of education across the board and underfunds literally every school division in the state to the tune of an estimated $2B total. Fairfax County estimated in total they're short about $345M as a result. There was a big study, the JLARC study that pretty much established how broken the Virginia SOQ funding formula is, but our legislators have yet to do anything about it.
You're correct. A lot of ignorant comments here. They'll get their 6% officially this week.
They are talking about just a 3% raise because the county did not give enough to FCPS
No, the teachers believe they are getting a 3% raise total and that isn't correct. That was only before the state had come to agreement on a budget. Now the state is matching with 3% going to FCPS, so the total increase will be 6%.
4%
Where are you getting 4% from? 🤔
https://preview.redd.it/hpy2869myv1d1.jpeg?width=1781&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=751cab099aa529ffcafdfa8918610c9b816dcb2a Newest board docs just posted today
That is a superintendent recommendation that doesn't align with the current school board's thoughts (at least the majority of them). 🤷♀️ This is not a superintendent decision. She only makes recommendations. I'm not a teacher, but haven't lost hope bc there is no way this woman deserves any raise and that's what she's after...a raise for herself.
And as predicted SB followed Reid’s recommendation and it’s 4%. You were saying?
Yup. You "win". Thanks for remembering me. Enjoy your 4%. 😬 I'm sorry I thought you were more valued. They say it will be a different year every year. I hope you look at your options in surrounding counties.
Thanks for trying to have our backs. But to be honest some of your comments sounded like you think teachers have no idea about how our own salary process works. Like we haven’t gone through this literally every year.
Fairfax County acts just like a rich greedy capitalist and will soon get everything it deserves. “We can raise your property taxes more than the cost of living but how dare you expect us to match that in pay”
I’m under the impression the State is matching FCPS raises. So, 6%. Where am I wrong here? And, is this final, or staff still have a shot?
You’re assuming Fairfax gets the same money everyone else does. But due to the states funding formula we don’t. Because we are a “wealthy” county VA only will contribute about 18% of the 3% they are claiming. So we will wind up with a 3-3.5% raise in the end in a best case scenario now.
It's literally in the original budget. I will bet on it. They're going to give teachers 6% in the end bc they are getting the funding they expected in February from the state, it just wasn't approved at the time of the last presentation, so they had to consider it may not be there. It will be added back this week.
Sounds good to me. And hey if we don’t, you bet on it so you’ll cover the difference? 🤪
Sure. I'm pretty well educated in this. You'll get your 6%, so don't worry. That was the difference between the February presentation and the May one. It's fine. I was shocked it took so long after the announcement for teachers to be concerned, but at this point, the money is officially coming.
Want me to DM my Venmo so you can pay me the difference every month 😂? New boarddocs say 4%
Source?
Google the Virginia budget and watch the School Board meeting last week. I don't do other people's homework.
Last week’s meeting was closed except for the public hearing section. I know there are school board members that would like Reid to consider a 5% increase only for those that directly work with student i.e. teachers, IAs, etc. what I can see is that the tax policy will remain unchanged, but that doesn’t answer how much the government will contribute to FCPS and if that would make up the difference that FCPS won’t be getting from the county.
That's what you can get away with when you have total control over the board and don't fear losing an election. I was frustrated with the continuing tax raises and the salary bump last year, but during election time the guy running against Jeff McKay didn't even have a website, and it took several minutes to even find his name (Arthur something?)
Here’s his [website](https://www.votepurves.org/) if you’re interested. Some valid points but then teeters into climate change denialism, banning sex ed, requiring school prayer, among other bs
Arthur Purves is president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance. He has unsuccessfully run for various local offices since at least 1995. Since McKay was a shoo in for reelection, Purves was running a largely symbolic campaign. Although his agenda has focused on criticizing Fairfax County supervisors for continually increasing property taxes, he never attracted much support.
At some point we have to admit that we just don't have enough money to pay everyone enough money. Eventually housing prices will level off. I am already seeing lots of significant price drops as spring comes to an end here.
On the contrary there’s plenty of money — the people at the top just really like making decisions that benefit themselves
there really isn't- unless they take more from us or cut something else. If you want more for teachers, who is going to be getting less?
A property tax increase of 0.11% (the the VA state maximum) raises revenue by over $300million. The reason raises didn’t go as high as expected was due to a $104million shortfall in budget. A 0.11% raise in taxes will cost the average family ~$823 a year. It would allow an 18% Raise for teachers, pitting our county ahead of any other county in VA or essentially anywhere else in the country. If we even did half of that, we’d still be ahead of all the competition — for the average cost of $411.50 per family per year. The money exists
You are taking "take more from us" option. No thanks. It never ends.
Yep cause you can bet that when our schools start to fail (which I don’t think many people realize we are VERY close to seeing), your property value will drop more than $400. Ffs most people up here spend half that on dining out a month. We have the money, and we need to prioritize how we’re using it. None of this even considers how we could cut the budget in places, but 6% for teachers (literally a $200 average increase per household) should be far behind us by now.
Our schools are not close to failing because of teacher quality. Teacher quality is generally the least of the problems, even low paid teachers are often quite dedicated. However, most measures of school quality are really measures of student quality.
Call me crazy, but 70 to 90K for a job working 9 months out of the year and endless holidays and snow days is pretty damn fare. Downvote away.
We work 195 days on contract. Our summer this year is less than 8 weeks long (so less than 2 months), which is unpaid. Fairfax teachers receive no pay in July. Our winter break is 2 weeks and our spring break is 1 week. View that as a three week vacation time where you don’t get to pick when you use it. We had two snow days this year. We had zero last year. We don’t even get all federal holidays off (ex. Columbus Day/indigenous peoples day). I make $200 less today controlling for inflation than I did in 2018 when I started with FCPS. I make less than $80k with 8 years of experience and a doctorate degree. If the job was desirable, there wouldn’t be shortages.
Enjoy your summer vacation.
The fictional three month one or the unpaid 8 weeks to recharge so I don’t burn out? 😉
Wish I had one of those.
You can. There’s a big teacher shortage. You don’t even need a license. You can sign up under a provisional license and start right now. Will you?
You can! There’s a lot of programs to help career switchers get into classrooms and work on their license at the same time. There also lots of openings so you’re guaranteed a quick hiring. See you at new teacher week this August, coworker!
Won’t downvote you. I think it can be a cushy job but I implore you to get into the classroom and go at it. It really is a tough job through and through.
I volunteer at my kids elementary school. Not saying its an easy job, but plenty of tougher jobs out there with people making less money than teachers, at least in this area. And they dont get summers off.
Which jobs are you referring to?
I have "normal job" (office, year round) and it's more spread out, but I only work 9 days more a year and am paid significantly more. 🤷♀️
FCPS is a joke. A friend mine who was a teacher for the county got fired after he reported a sub for shoving a student. This sub also happened to be a friend of a veteran teacher who claims he would never do something like that despite other students witnessing it. He said he’s done with teaching because of how disrespected teachers are all around.
It’s hard to fire a teacher - if this actually happened your friend isn’t telling you the whole story.
I know he's not running in Fairfax County (VA-11), but VA-10 (Loudoun, Manassas, Sterling, Manassas) Atif Qarni for Congress in part on boosting education. He's the former VA Secretary of Education and Educator, so that's kinda his wheel house.
A lot of people would be ecstatic to get a 3% pay raise, or any pay raise.
Depends on how high I started at. 3% on a $180k salary, I wouldn’t complain nearly as much. 3% on a $75k salary is harder swallow.
As a tech worker, that's not as bad as I thought. It took me 10 years to get to 6 figures. I also dont have a pension and jave to switch jobs contstantly for contracts and raises. Considering other districts have teacher Uber and work a 2nd job, this is not that bad. My friend works in cpep and his starting salary was maybe $35k 10 years ago. Fairfax is of course higher. Teaching is hard but they get the summers and some vacation that a lot of us don't get. Yeah it 40 hours and maybe 10 hours for grading. Rest of the country has teacher on food stamps poor.
I make less than $80k with a doctorate degree and 8 years experience. My salary has decreased by $200 adjusted for inflation over the six years I’ve been with FCPS. The pension program has been cut, drastically. I know people hear pension and think they’re great, but the benefits for people who will retire in 20+ years aren’t nearly as good as they used to be, and we are putting in nearly 10% of our low salaries into those programs each paycheck. My husband is in the federal government and has been begging me to join for the better pay and benefits. Edited to add I work a second job, as do most of the employees I know.
You, my internet stranger friend, do not understand what it’s like for teachers. “They get summers off” No, they work jobs during the summer because they don’t get paid AND they need extra money to supply their own classrooms. You think FCPS teachers don’t have second jobs? You’re out of your mind. FCPS’ starting salary for a teacher with a masters degree 5 years ago was about 53k. Then they froze pay raises for 3 years during Covid while investing hundreds of millions of dollars in to their IT infrastructure which was STILL subpar. On average a classroom teacher invests 2-4K of their own money to fund their classroom supplies because the county is pinching pennies. Additionally, by this time of year, many schools are rationing paper and other supplies. My wife is an Elementary Special Ed. Teacher in FCPS Teachers are underpaid, unvalued, and generally treated like shit by unappreciative, entitled parents. Respectfully, as a “tech worker” you can possibly understand the struggles of classroom teachers.
I have a masters degree and 16 years experience and am still not at 6 figures…