FCPS teacher salaries--pathetic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That's right, folks--if the PP didn't make it crystal clear, we ARE NOT PAID during the summer. We are 10-month contract employees who have to turn in our employee badges, keys, etc. when we leave the building in June, and don't get them back until August. (And yes, parents, this is why we might not respond immediately to those mid-summer emails you send us--we are technically between jobs). Saying that we are on vacation during this time suggests a PAID vacation--that is not what the summer is for teachers. Many teachers take on other jobs, or teach summer school to help pay the bills during this period.

Do you get benefits during this time? And, if you don't get paid during the summer, then you are paid a salary for ten months. You do understand that you get about a month off during that time?

I was a teacher and I appreciate very much how hard the job is. However, there are certain benefits that go with the job: time off. Teachers should be paid more than they are, but right now, there really is no money. And, no, I don't want to pay more in taxes.

I do think the stress of all this testing is awful and that it needs to go away.

And you think you're alone in this????? I'll go out on a limb and assert that NO ONE wants to pay more in taxes, but sometimes you don't have a choice when it's for the greater good of a community as a whole. Sheesh, the people around here who expect something for nothing. Perhaps the only way for folks to get it is for schools to fall apart and home values to decline as a result. Maybe then the idea of collectively paying a little more to proper fund the quality institutions we all seem to want, won't seem like such a bad deal.

I don't want to pay any more in taxes, but I also don't want to cut of my nose to spite my face.

Raise property taxes by a few cents. At least property tax money stays in the county.

I thought they should have gone to $1.10.

It was .89 on 2008. The rate has already gone up 22.5% since then. In addition, the base increasing every year, which proxies living costs, and new housing is added (and taxes collected) which is where the new people live. That's how they've paid for the massive budget increases (44%) in FCPS.

When you do simple math, it's easy to see where the lies are. Please people, do the math.

The rate has gone UP and DOWN. When we moved here in 1997, the rate was [/b]$1.23.[b] So, since then the rate has gone down. You conveniently picked the nadir of the rate to "prove" your case.

Memories are short! How could I forget this. They need to move property tax levels right back up there.

Edit: I'm not the PP who posted above about the .89 cent rate.

I am. I used the 2008 number because that's what Garza is using in her propaganda claiming 500M in cuts.

Pick any year you want, but be honest use the same one throughout. FCPS budget increases were actually much greater prior to 2008. 2008 is the first full tax year that reflected the "housing bubble" busting.

1997-2008 budgets were going up even faster due to housing prices soaring, county budgets were going up very fast and even with the rate reduction left much more money in the till.

If you're having trouble with the math, I'll do it for you. We can compute property tax burden (rate * base) and FCPS budget (total from all sources). They don't make it transparent but it's published.

Garza picked 2008 because it's the only possible way to twist the numbers and pretend there are cuts. If you go back before the housing bubble it's an embarrassment of riches. Not that is isn't pretty bad now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That's right, folks--if the PP didn't make it crystal clear, we ARE NOT PAID during the summer. We are 10-month contract employees who have to turn in our employee badges, keys, etc. when we leave the building in June, and don't get them back until August. (And yes, parents, this is why we might not respond immediately to those mid-summer emails you send us--we are technically between jobs). Saying that we are on vacation during this time suggests a PAID vacation--that is not what the summer is for teachers. Many teachers take on other jobs, or teach summer school to help pay the bills during this period.

Do you get benefits during this time? And, if you don't get paid during the summer, then you are paid a salary for ten months. You do understand that you get about a month off during that time?

I was a teacher and I appreciate very much how hard the job is. However, there are certain benefits that go with the job: time off. Teachers should be paid more than they are, but right now, there really is no money. And, no, I don't want to pay more in taxes.

I do think the stress of all this testing is awful and that it needs to go away.

And you think you're alone in this????? I'll go out on a limb and assert that NO ONE wants to pay more in taxes, but sometimes you don't have a choice when it's for the greater good of a community as a whole. Sheesh, the people around here who expect something for nothing. Perhaps the only way for folks to get it is for schools to fall apart and home values to decline as a result. Maybe then the idea of collectively paying a little more to proper fund the quality institutions we all seem to want, won't seem like such a bad deal.

I don't want to pay any more in taxes, but I also don't want to cut of my nose to spite my face.

Raise property taxes by a few cents. At least property tax money stays in the county.

I thought they should have gone to $1.10.

It was .89 on 2008. The rate has already gone up 22.5% since then. In addition, the base increasing every year, which proxies living costs, and new housing is added (and taxes collected) which is where the new people live. That's how they've paid for the massive budget increases (44%) in FCPS.

When you do simple math, it's easy to see where the lies are. Please people, do the math.

The rate has gone UP and DOWN. When we moved here in 1997, the rate was [/b]$1.23.[b] So, since then the rate has gone down. You conveniently picked the nadir of the rate to "prove" your case.

Memories are short! How could I forget this. They need to move property tax levels right back up there.

Edit: I'm not the PP who posted above about the .89 cent rate.

I am. I used the 2008 number because that's what Garza is using in her propaganda claiming 500M in cuts.

Pick any year you want, but be honest use the same one throughout. FCPS budget increases were actually much greater prior to 2008. 2008 is the first full tax year that reflected the "housing bubble" busting.

1997-2008 budgets were going up even faster due to housing prices soaring, county budgets were going up very fast and even with the rate reduction left much more money in the till.

If you're having trouble with the math, I'll do it for you. We can compute property tax burden (rate * base) and FCPS budget (total from all sources). They don't make it transparent but it's published.

Garza picked 2008 because it's the only possible way to twist the numbers and pretend there are cuts. If you go back before the housing bubble it's an embarrassment of riches. Not that is isn't pretty bad now.

If everything in the county is an "embarrassment of riches" then why can't we pay our teachers more, and why are cuts to ANY services being suggested?

[Anonymous]

Housing prices went up this year. Where has all that money gone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That's right, folks--if the PP didn't make it crystal clear, we ARE NOT PAID during the summer. We are 10-month contract employees who have to turn in our employee badges, keys, etc. when we leave the building in June, and don't get them back until August. (And yes, parents, this is why we might not respond immediately to those mid-summer emails you send us--we are technically between jobs). Saying that we are on vacation during this time suggests a PAID vacation--that is not what the summer is for teachers. Many teachers take on other jobs, or teach summer school to help pay the bills during this period.

Do you get benefits during this time? And, if you don't get paid during the summer, then you are paid a salary for ten months. You do understand that you get about a month off during that time?

I was a teacher and I appreciate very much how hard the job is. However, there are certain benefits that go with the job: time off. Teachers should be paid more than they are, but right now, there really is no money. And, no, I don't want to pay more in taxes.

I do think the stress of all this testing is awful and that it needs to go away.

And you think you're alone in this????? I'll go out on a limb and assert that NO ONE wants to pay more in taxes, but sometimes you don't have a choice when it's for the greater good of a community as a whole. Sheesh, the people around here who expect something for nothing. Perhaps the only way for folks to get it is for schools to fall apart and home values to decline as a result. Maybe then the idea of collectively paying a little more to proper fund the quality institutions we all seem to want, won't seem like such a bad deal.

I don't want to pay any more in taxes, but I also don't want to cut of my nose to spite my face.

Raise property taxes by a few cents. At least property tax money stays in the county.

I thought they should have gone to $1.10.

It was .89 on 2008. The rate has already gone up 22.5% since then. In addition, the base increasing every year, which proxies living costs, and new housing is added (and taxes collected) which is where the new people live. That's how they've paid for the massive budget increases (44%) in FCPS.

When you do simple math, it's easy to see where the lies are. Please people, do the math.

The rate has gone UP and DOWN. When we moved here in 1997, the rate was [/b]$1.23.[b] So, since then the rate has gone down. You conveniently picked the nadir of the rate to "prove" your case.

Memories are short! How could I forget this. They need to move property tax levels right back up there.

Edit: I'm not the PP who posted above about the .89 cent rate.

I am. I used the 2008 number because that's what Garza is using in her propaganda claiming 500M in cuts.

Pick any year you want, but be honest use the same one throughout. FCPS budget increases were actually much greater prior to 2008. 2008 is the first full tax year that reflected the "housing bubble" busting.

1997-2008 budgets were going up even faster due to housing prices soaring, county budgets were going up very fast and even with the rate reduction left much more money in the till.

If you're having trouble with the math, I'll do it for you. We can compute property tax burden (rate * base) and FCPS budget (total from all sources). They don't make it transparent but it's published.

Garza picked 2008 because it's the only possible way to twist the numbers and pretend there are cuts. If you go back before the housing bubble it's an embarrassment of riches. Not that is isn't pretty bad now.

If everything in the county is an "embarrassment of riches" then why can't we pay our teachers more, and why are cuts to ANY services being suggested?

We could give teachers COLA raises.. They just choose to allocate the money to other things. Heck, they just voted themselves a massive raise..... It's just about priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Housing prices went up this year. Where has all that money gone?

Prices and rates have gone up. The county set a record for taxes collected. They will again this year. The money was used to increase budgets everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Housing prices went up this year. Where has all that money gone?

Prices and rates have gone up. The county set a record for taxes collected. They will again this year. The money was used to increase budgets everywhere.

Do you know where the link is to what the BOS is using the money on? I know where the FCPS budget information is and feel I get a lot of updates on how that money is spent, but don't get the same updates from the BOS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We could give teachers COLA raises.. They just choose to allocate the money to other things. Heck, they just voted themselves a massive raise..... It's just about priorities.

I am so tired of hearing about the BOS and school board raises. Enough. Their raises amount to a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, a tiny tiny drop in the bucket. Teachers are speaking as if since the BOS gave themselves a 25% raise, well then, they should all get a 25% raise, and it will be just as insignificant in terms of the total budget.

The BOS and school board is technically a "part time job" but they all work round the clock. I'm not crazy about my supervisor, and hope that she is voted out the next go round, but I certainly wouldn't begrudge her, or any BOS member, from a $95,000 salary. It is a tremendously important job.

[Anonymous]

Screw you, teachers, you overpaid whiners. You have a secure, undemanding job and plenty of time off, so shut the hell up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A tax rate increase is inevitable unless we want to see the quality of our schools continue to decline.

Too bad there is no correlation whatsoever between what teachers are paid and the quality of the schools. NEXT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they ever list a total salary for each teacher when talking about raises? One that includes benefits for health, pension, and other things that FCPS offers. The data is available. I think it makes for a better discussion. Many employees in other lines of work also have access to this information for their own jobs these days.

They do. It's in this report: http://www.fcps.edu/fs/budget/wabe/2015.pdf

Ok, so rounded, the average salary is $102,000 for FCPS, $104,000 for Falls Church, $96,000 for Loudon, $108,000 for Arlington and $110,000 for Alexandra. FCPS pays several thousand more than other counties for health benefits. I don't see how FCPS's salaries are so out of line. What is the problem?

Teachers easily get 3 more months than most other professions, but even if they work so much harder that they only get 2 months off, that would be an annual salary of about $120,000. $120,000 is probably is less than what an actual teacher makes per year once you factor in tutoring that most of them seem to do. At what point is it enough? Is it really the money or the fact that the job is too much to handle because the expectations are too high for anyone to achieve?

I do not know a single teacher making the numbers you describe. From that link, page 8 says the average salary is $66k. You're quoting numbers almost double that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they ever list a total salary for each teacher when talking about raises? One that includes benefits for health, pension, and other things that FCPS offers. The data is available. I think it makes for a better discussion. Many employees in other lines of work also have access to this information for their own jobs these days.

They do. It's in this report: http://www.fcps.edu/fs/budget/wabe/2015.pdf

Ok, so rounded, the average salary is $102,000 for FCPS, $104,000 for Falls Church, $96,000 for Loudon, $108,000 for Arlington and $110,000 for Alexandra. FCPS pays several thousand more than other counties for health benefits. I don't see how FCPS's salaries are so out of line. What is the problem?

Teachers easily get 3 more months than most other professions, but even if they work so much harder that they only get 2 months off, that would be an annual salary of about $120,000. $120,000 is probably is less than what an actual teacher makes per year once you factor in tutoring that most of them seem to do. At what point is it enough? Is it really the money or the fact that the job is too much to handle because the expectations are too high for anyone to achieve?

I do not know a single teacher making the numbers you describe. From that link, page 8 says the average salary is $66k. You're quoting numbers almost double that.

Salary paid by the employer including benefits. The average amount paid by the employer to the employee. Not the salary of take home pay.

[Anonymous]

The salary and benefits comparison starts on page 43 of the WABE report.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they ever list a total salary for each teacher when talking about raises? One that includes benefits for health, pension, and other things that FCPS offers. The data is available. I think it makes for a better discussion. Many employees in other lines of work also have access to this information for their own jobs these days.

They do. It's in this report: http://www.fcps.edu/fs/budget/wabe/2015.pdf

Ok, so rounded, the average salary is $102,000 for FCPS, $104,000 for Falls Church, $96,000 for Loudon, $108,000 for Arlington and $110,000 for Alexandra. FCPS pays several thousand more than other counties for health benefits. I don't see how FCPS's salaries are so out of line. What is the problem?

Teachers easily get 3 more months than most other professions, but even if they work so much harder that they only get 2 months off, that would be an annual salary of about $120,000. $120,000 is probably is less than what an actual teacher makes per year once you factor in tutoring that most of them seem to do. At what point is it enough? Is it really the money or the fact that the job is too much to handle because the expectations are too high for anyone to achieve?

I do not know a single teacher making the numbers you describe. From that link, page 8 says the average salary is $66k. You're quoting numbers almost double that.

Salary paid by the employer including benefits. The average amount paid by the employer to the employee. Not the salary of take home pay.

Okay, but shouldn't everyone eligible for health insurance (basically any full time employee) have their salary inflated by $20-30k then? The reality is that you can't pay rent with health benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A tax rate increase is inevitable unless we want to see the quality of our schools continue to decline.

Too bad there is no correlation whatsoever between what teachers are paid and the quality of the schools. NEXT.

Too bad you sound like a completely uninformed idiot. NEXT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't they ever list a total salary for each teacher when talking about raises? One that includes benefits for health, pension, and other things that FCPS offers. The data is available. I think it makes for a better discussion. Many employees in other lines of work also have access to this information for their own jobs these days.

They do. It's in this report: http://www.fcps.edu/fs/budget/wabe/2015.pdf

Ok, so rounded, the average salary is $102,000 for FCPS, $104,000 for Falls Church, $96,000 for Loudon, $108,000 for Arlington and $110,000 for Alexandra. FCPS pays several thousand more than other counties for health benefits. I don't see how FCPS's salaries are so out of line. What is the problem?

Teachers easily get 3 more months than most other professions, but even if they work so much harder that they only get 2 months off, that would be an annual salary of about $120,000. $120,000 is probably is less than what an actual teacher makes per year once you factor in tutoring that most of them seem to do. At what point is it enough? Is it really the money or the fact that the job is too much to handle because the expectations are too high for anyone to achieve?

I do not know a single teacher making the numbers you describe. From that link, page 8 says the average salary is $66k. You're quoting numbers almost double that.

Salary paid by the employer including benefits. The average amount paid by the employer to the employee. Not the salary of take home pay.

Okay, but shouldn't everyone eligible for health insurance (basically any full time employee) have their salary inflated by $20-30k then? The reality is that you can't pay rent with health benefits.

Well, by whatever the health benefits are. It's all a cost to the taxpayers. They could easily negotiate benefits for cash, at the same cost to the taxpayers. Benefits are not free you know.

And oh yeah, FCPS health insurance qualifies as a Cadillac plan under the ACA and starting next year will be subject to an excise tax of 40%. Will likely get delayed yet again till after the election but wait till it hits then!.