Anonymous wrote:

They are going to cut the proposed COLA for the employees. That is where the cut is going to be for next year. This is not a good idea. They need to cut other areas like the instructional coaches.

Do you have any idea what you're talking about? There are about 100 instructional coaches. They are teachers who basically earn one more month's pay. Let's say that's $5K. $500K in a budget that is $2.6BILLION is a pittance. If that $500K were spread out across all the FCPS teachers, they'd make $4.28 more a year.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are these three month vacations people speak of?

School gets out LATE June and starts again late August or mere days into September. Plus, all teachers have mandatory work days before kids begin in the fall.

So by my count that's less than 2 months vacation. And seeing as how they're either only receiving checks for when they work or spreading out a thinner paycheck over 12 months, I don't think we can call it a "vacation" anymore than we can call weekends a vacation.

True. But many, many people make the same amount of money or less and are expected to be at the job for a full 50 weeks or so per year.

So you wouldn't mind any of those people teaching your kids, right? If it's all interchangeable....

They are going to cut the proposed COLA for the employees. That is where the cut is going to be for next year. This is not a good idea. They need to cut other areas like the instructional coaches.

Anonymous wrote:Property values will not necessarily go down. Taxes do not need to go up. School Board needs to use better judgment.

Wonder if you'll be feeling similar certitude when FCPS starts announcing what is going to be cut. It's simple math, revenues (primarily taxes) have not kept pace with expenses (more students to teach and a higher proportion of students needing ESOL). Explain again, how the judgment of the School Board lead to any of these factors.

Anonymous wrote:I hate to say it, but a tax rate increase might not be a bad idea long term. Ugly at first, but things will adjust. Property values might fall a little because of the change in affordability, but from my perspective, values are artificially high here, perhaps partially due to the relatively low tax rates.

I'm from another state with lower property values but higher taxes. The PITI works out to be about the same. I'd rather money go to the county than go to the mortgage companies.

A tax rate increase is inevitable unless we want to see the quality of our schools continue to decline. Property values will not fall over the long-term because the area and it's schools will remain highly desirable. Declining schools will hurt property values more than a tax ever will. And how about all these developers building like crazy with BS estimates of new students who will live in their apartment buildings, etc.? They need to stop getting sweetheart deals to build in booming areas like Tysons and start contributing more to the communities they're creating.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Montgomery is only 5k more. Whatever. Teachers make a darn good salary when one considers their hours and days of work. Actual work. The teacher workdays are a joke.

Parent here. And Arlington is 25% more. It always amazes me that as a culture we justify paying CEOs millions of dollars regardless of what boneheaded decisions they make, and find ways to demean the people in charge of giving our kids an education.
Whatever. You get what you pay for, folks. I'm glad my kids won't be in FCPS for much longer.

+100 Given how educated this area is, it is a crime that we pay teachers so little and yet demand so much from our schools.

It sounds like a small increase in pay for next year (assuming no increases in other costs to the employee).

2016-2017 sounds even more bleak.

Anonymous wrote:Are we comparing apples to apples? What about health benefits?

It's not that hard to find:

http://www.fcps.edu/hr/benefits/publications/pdf/2015MedicalandDentalPremiums.pdf


Also, look at pp. 44-53 of this report:

http://www.fcps.edu/fs/budget/wabe/2015.pdf

Property values will not necessarily go down. Taxes do not need to go up. School Board needs to use better judgment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How does the state justify spending so little in Fairfax when Fairfax is receiving so many immigrants compared to other parts of the state. If other parts of the state are doing poorly even with extra support year after year, are there any repercussions? If other counties get more money and have less immigrants, shouldn't they be doing better than Fairfax?

They don't have to justify anything to Fairfax County (or Northern Virginia). They just take the tax money and keep it down state. The current formula for dispersing state funds for public schools is warped and decades old- so that a super majority wins and as a result they will not make any changes. The current formula punishes the counties at both ends of the economic spectrum - the richest and the poorest. The communities that benefit the most from the current formula are those that ring Richmond and Roanoke. Immigrant issues in pubic schools only affect a few counties and ones that do not have the political power in the House and Senate. The gerrymandering that happens in the state is not just based on Rs and Ds it also tries to take away as much political power it can from the cash cow counties.

I have lived here long enough to think seceding is a viable option- but that has its own issues. My dream is for Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Montgomery, Prince Georges and DC to form the 51st state. That would solve many problems from schools to transportation. It would have a good mix of incomes too. Its population would be larger than 20 or so existing states.

Fairfax has so many people though so why are they not represented well? Isn't the funding for each school system based on the local composite index? Why does Fairfax do so badly in this area?

FCPS does fine, that's part of why the budgets have been increasing as fast as they have.

There is a disparity in how Richmond spends money but it's more wrecked in transportation where the population is less dense and in welfare programs where the bottom of the state is poorer

The amount of road projects in Richmond are ridiculous for the amount of people they have. But other than that, where is the wasteful spending by the state?

I hate to say it, but a tax rate increase might not be a bad idea long term. Ugly at first, but things will adjust. Property values might fall a little because of the change in affordability, but from my perspective, values are artificially high here, perhaps partially due to the relatively low tax rates.

I'm from another state with lower property values but higher taxes. The PITI works out to be about the same. I'd rather money go to the county than go to the mortgage companies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How does the state justify spending so little in Fairfax when Fairfax is receiving so many immigrants compared to other parts of the state. If other parts of the state are doing poorly even with extra support year after year, are there any repercussions? If other counties get more money and have less immigrants, shouldn't they be doing better than Fairfax?

They don't have to justify anything to Fairfax County (or Northern Virginia). They just take the tax money and keep it down state. The current formula for dispersing state funds for public schools is warped and decades old- so that a super majority wins and as a result they will not make any changes. The current formula punishes the counties at both ends of the economic spectrum - the richest and the poorest. The communities that benefit the most from the current formula are those that ring Richmond and Roanoke. Immigrant issues in pubic schools only affect a few counties and ones that do not have the political power in the House and Senate. The gerrymandering that happens in the state is not just based on Rs and Ds it also tries to take away as much political power it can from the cash cow counties.

I have lived here long enough to think seceding is a viable option- but that has its own issues. My dream is for Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Montgomery, Prince Georges and DC to form the 51st state. That would solve many problems from schools to transportation. It would have a good mix of incomes too. Its population would be larger than 20 or so existing states.

Fairfax has so many people though so why are they not represented well? Isn't the funding for each school system based on the local composite index? Why does Fairfax do so badly in this area?

Fairfax County does not have a majority of the population in the Commonwealth. Northern Virginia does not have a majority of the population in the Commonwealth. There is quite a bit of regionalism in Virginia politics and northern Virginia is not well liked (except for the tax collection part). Look where the "Welcome to Virginia" rest stops are on 95 (Fredericksburg) and 66 (Manasses)- it is as if we are not part of the state. This is an example of how the rest of the state views us. Fairfax does "badly"in the local composite index because we have a very high income compared to the rest of the state. It costs more to live here and there is a small bump for COL (for which the rest of the state is still seething and sees as NoVA taking more than their fair share), but not nearly enough for the real COL differences. When we had the drop in housing values and incomes due to the recent reccession, the sitting Govenor froze the formula so we would not get a bigger share- the next Gov unfroze it. The sitting Gov. was from Richmond and the next Gov was from NoVA. Look where they are putting all the tolls on roads and not in the rest of the state. We are the cash cow and they feed us well enough to stay alive but not much more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How does the state justify spending so little in Fairfax when Fairfax is receiving so many immigrants compared to other parts of the state. If other parts of the state are doing poorly even with extra support year after year, are there any repercussions? If other counties get more money and have less immigrants, shouldn't they be doing better than Fairfax?

They don't have to justify anything to Fairfax County (or Northern Virginia). They just take the tax money and keep it down state. The current formula for dispersing state funds for public schools is warped and decades old- so that a super majority wins and as a result they will not make any changes. The current formula punishes the counties at both ends of the economic spectrum - the richest and the poorest. The communities that benefit the most from the current formula are those that ring Richmond and Roanoke. Immigrant issues in pubic schools only affect a few counties and ones that do not have the political power in the House and Senate. The gerrymandering that happens in the state is not just based on Rs and Ds it also tries to take away as much political power it can from the cash cow counties.

I have lived here long enough to think seceding is a viable option- but that has its own issues. My dream is for Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Montgomery, Prince Georges and DC to form the 51st state. That would solve many problems from schools to transportation. It would have a good mix of incomes too. Its population would be larger than 20 or so existing states.

Fairfax has so many people though so why are they not represented well? Isn't the funding for each school system based on the local composite index? Why does Fairfax do so badly in this area?

FCPS does fine, that's part of why the budgets have been increasing as fast as they have.

There is a disparity in how Richmond spends money but it's more wrecked in transportation where the population is less dense and in welfare programs where the bottom of the state is poorer

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

How does the state justify spending so little in Fairfax when Fairfax is receiving so many immigrants compared to other parts of the state. If other parts of the state are doing poorly even with extra support year after year, are there any repercussions? If other counties get more money and have less immigrants, shouldn't they be doing better than Fairfax?

They don't have to justify anything to Fairfax County (or Northern Virginia). They just take the tax money and keep it down state. The current formula for dispersing state funds for public schools is warped and decades old- so that a super majority wins and as a result they will not make any changes. The current formula punishes the counties at both ends of the economic spectrum - the richest and the poorest. The communities that benefit the most from the current formula are those that ring Richmond and Roanoke. Immigrant issues in pubic schools only affect a few counties and ones that do not have the political power in the House and Senate. The gerrymandering that happens in the state is not just based on Rs and Ds it also tries to take away as much political power it can from the cash cow counties.

I have lived here long enough to think seceding is a viable option- but that has its own issues. My dream is for Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Montgomery, Prince Georges and DC to form the 51st state. That would solve many problems from schools to transportation. It would have a good mix of incomes too. Its population would be larger than 20 or so existing states.

Fairfax has so many people though so why are they not represented well? Isn't the funding for each school system based on the local composite index? Why does Fairfax do so badly in this area?