I have never understood the fairness of private schools offering discounted tuition for children of teachers. It can mean a large effective difference in pay for people doing the same job based on whether they have children in the school or not.

I make mid-70k yearly at a religious-affiliated (but not catholic) school in NOVA, with about 15 years experience. I pay $550 for health insurance each month (it's the best plan my school offers). They also offer 50% tuition remission, but that unfortunately is still not enough for me to be able to afford sending my child to the school. My husband makes almost 90k yearly and it definitely does not feel like we have enough money for how much things cost in the DC area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Way less than public school teachers.

I wouldn’t go with “way less”, but definitely less.

Still, public school teachers are flocking to the private schools right now. Most people interviewing in the past 4-5 years have been public school teachers, and most of our new hires are people with 10+ years of public school experience.

The job conditions in the publics are bad enough that many (myself included) figure the pay cut is acceptable if we can actually enjoy work again.

This is so not true. Public school teachers have zero interest in taking a huge pay cut to deal with hordes of helicopter parents.
I’m a public school teacher and the only teachers I’ve ever heard of that have gone to private schools were the religious ones who wanted to share their faith.

I left a public school at the same time as 4 others, all who applied to privates. I now conduct interviews and can see how many public school teachers apply to our school alone. You do realize I see their resumes.

I’m sorry if you don’t like what I have to say. That doesn’t change anything at all.

(And I don’t deal with helicopter parents. I did get a gracious note from a parent today, though. I’m wondering if you know very little about private schools.)

I don't question your experience, but I left a Big Three for MCPS years ago and have never looked back.

Regarding the parent community, it wasn't so much about helicopter parents (although that was indeed an issue), as it was about parents who regarded teachers as if we were the help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Way less than public school teachers.

I wouldn’t go with “way less”, but definitely less.

Still, public school teachers are flocking to the private schools right now. Most people interviewing in the past 4-5 years have been public school teachers, and most of our new hires are people with 10+ years of public school experience.

The job conditions in the publics are bad enough that many (myself included) figure the pay cut is acceptable if we can actually enjoy work again.

"Way less" is accurate when you take benefits into account.

Anonymous wrote:IOW, not much. Hope your spouse makes a lot.

That's the operating assumption. And that's why I left to teach in MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:Seconding the PP comment about the administrative bloat. It is shameful for a teacher of 20 years to be making $80k and the HOS is making $600k+ with a free house on campus. Sorry, but they don’t work *that* hard. And look at the number of administrators in any school. Many are very heavy at the top.

Don't blame the school -- blame the government at all levels and blame society -- if you blame anyone. We ask more of schools now -- public and private. There is so much compliance and other work to do. This is forced on the schools.

Also not that many 600k HOSs floating around.

I switched to teaching after age 50 once I had made enough money to retire in other fields. This is what I love to do. The salary is pretty much grocery money in comparison to any other professional field. I even switched from a DC charter school to a VA private so I could teach how I wanted to (and took a significant pay cut in the process).

I wouldn't want to do this if I relied on the meager salary. But since I don't need it that much, the benefits of a small private far, far outweigh the $$$ difference. Finding a situation where you look forward to going to work on Monday morning is worth a lot.

Anonymous wrote:Seconding the PP comment about the administrative bloat. It is shameful for a teacher of 20 years to be making $80k and the HOS is making $600k+ with a free house on campus. Sorry, but they don’t work *that* hard. And look at the number of administrators in any school. Many are very heavy at the top.

+1
It is the sheer quantity of administrative staff and every year they make up more positions.

It might be a shock to some, but different people have the freedom to make different choices based on their personal priorities.

Some teachers prefer public with larger classes and higher salary, which is great. Other teachers prefer private with smaller classes and lower salaries. Within the set of private school teachers, some teachers might choose a religious school (e.g., Catholic, Episcopal, Jewish, or whatever) and some might choose a secular school.

Within any of these large groups of teachers, there will be some dud teachers and some outstanding teachers, and a lot of average teachers.

The concept is freedom of choice. America was built on it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Way less than public school teachers.

I wouldn’t go with “way less”, but definitely less.

Still, public school teachers are flocking to the private schools right now. Most people interviewing in the past 4-5 years have been public school teachers, and most of our new hires are people with 10+ years of public school experience.

The job conditions in the publics are bad enough that many (myself included) figure the pay cut is acceptable if we can actually enjoy work again.

Well they clearly aren’t coming to our girls’ school. The HOS sites finding quality teachers as her biggest challenge. We’ve been shocked at the disparity in quality of teachers in the upper school specifically.

So rich people teach rich kids at privates.

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in public. His teachers make 125K with 15 years in. They work for it, but you don't go into teaching with an expectation of an easy life.

That salary is the top of the pay scale, or higher, for most school systems in the area. You must be in DCPS for that to be midcareer.

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in public. His teachers make 125K with 15 years in. They work for it, but you don't go into teaching with an expectation of an easy life.

I don’t think people go into teaching thinking it’ll be easy. But I certainly didn’t expect:
Having my lunch and planning taken away to cover other classes
Having class sizes of 42 (and 180 students total)
Working most Saturdays and Sundays to keep up
Being hit by a student and cursed at daily; breaking up fights
Having a weapon removed from a student

Teachers shouldn’t have to accept this treatment as part of the job.

All of this happened when I was in public. It’s why I gladly take the private school salary.

My kid is in public. His teachers make 125K with 15 years in. They work for it, but you don't go into teaching with an expectation of an easy life.

When I switched from fcps to a religious private school, I took a 25% pay cut. Totally worth it.