Year 5. Bachelors. 60k. I’m basically a modern day slave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm so tired of this old canard about teachers being treated poorly. They're treated pretty well here and still providing a substandard education through distance learning.

You can believe whatever you want about teachers being treated poorly. However, the inability of school systems to retain teachers seems to point to a systemic issue with the way teachers perceive their working conditions. Teachers leave Virginia public schools at rates greater than associates leave Big Law, a notoriously high turnover field. It is highly unlikely that teachers are just some weak-willed group in every district across the state. Far more likely is that there are systemic problems in education that make it an undesirable profession. Those problems do not just affect teachers, by the way. They affect students and their families who may have even less flexibility to leave the system than employees.

It’s the pay, it’s way too low. I realize teachers aren’t paid well in general but the high cost of living here makes our situation much worse, relative to other areas of the country. I suppose it’s fine if you’re married and your partner makes decent money, but if you’re single or your partner is also a teacher or works at a non-profit or something, this area is almost impossible to live in.

Anonymous wrote:I'm so tired of this old canard about teachers being treated poorly. They're treated pretty well here and still providing a substandard education through distance learning.

You can believe whatever you want about teachers being treated poorly. However, the inability of school systems to retain teachers seems to point to a systemic issue with the way teachers perceive their working conditions. Teachers leave Virginia public schools at rates greater than associates leave Big Law, a notoriously high turnover field. It is highly unlikely that teachers are just some weak-willed group in every district across the state. Far more likely is that there are systemic problems in education that make it an undesirable profession. Those problems do not just affect teachers, by the way. They affect students and their families who may have even less flexibility to leave the system than employees.

I'm so tired of this old canard about teachers being treated poorly. They're treated pretty well here and still providing a substandard education through distance learning.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Laughing at the we will homeschool because too much DL parents

Dunno why. We did that, withdrawing one of our children in January.

As of December, FCPS elementary has gone from 98208 to 89885 students. About 2300 of those are kindergarteners -- 17% -- and I don't think anyone knows how many of these have parents planning on sending them to first grade, how many are redshirted, and how many are going to stay in private.

So parents who think that spending all day supporting DL with little learning taking place and unhappy children is rational, but quitting to homeschool for a few hours and actually providing an education is irrational?

Yeah I don’t get it either.

I think both don't really make sense given one parent has to give up working (the rich will outsource and or move to private if not there already before this official shit storm ). For what we pay in taxes (yes, we pay A LOT in property taxes) that covers this substandard school, it's not worth it for many to stay here. Fcps has been sitting on its laurels from many years back but that has not been how it is for many years. I

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Laughing at the we will homeschool because too much DL parents

Dunno why. We did that, withdrawing one of our children in January.

As of December, FCPS elementary has gone from 98208 to 89885 students. About 2300 of those are kindergarteners -- 17% -- and I don't think anyone knows how many of these have parents planning on sending them to first grade, how many are redshirted, and how many are going to stay in private.

So parents who think that spending all day supporting DL with little learning taking place and unhappy children is rational, but quitting to homeschool for a few hours and actually providing an education is irrational?

Yeah I don’t get it either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people say they will move / at least for the year.

But mass exodus may be unlikely but definitely more loss than they already have and that continues this year, I believe is possible.

Maybe. I’m a Fed with a junior. We’re here for my job. DH is remote for a west coast tech firm. But, I’m 90% certain post COVID I’ll be 100% remote. I was 60% before, but can do the job without an office. They have let a lot of our leased space go. If we aren’t back in the fall FT, DD wants to take English this summer and graduate, and we’ll let her. Our housing value is up. We’ll be living in Asheville next year and both remote working. DD will gap year. There is a plan. Otherwise, we’ll, let her finish and move. If I had kids younger than HS, that would be the plan. A lot of Feds and techies will never go back to the office. Why pay the DMV COL for crap schools?

COVID has changed how people work and go to school. The federal government gave up the Trump telework axing and Biden will make it permanent. We aren’t being allowed in our building even if we need to be there for at least six weeks because of Trump riot/ terrorism concerns.

COVID a is going to end with a workforce much more able to work offsite than they were. I haven’t been to my office in a year. My laptop died, they Fed exes it. My annual review was on Teams. Cost cutting post pandemic in the government is going to mean letting dead federal and tech office space no one has to go into in a year go. Lot of people moved here for jobs and schools. The schools have been a disaster and we can leave and keep the jobs. Why stay?

Yeah, for us it would be less about moving to private than just moving out of the area altogether. We don’t hate the DMV, but not sure it’s worth the price tag. The issues with the public schools are not going away and if anything the pandemic will make them worse.

Where will you move to? We moved to Maryland because of the good schools, so don’t know where else to go. Especially for our Special Needs kid.

Same here - Fl TX anything specific such as school district would be great. Pp I did read that Florida has scholarships/stipends for kids with SN. Apparently it covers great options. I don’t know enough but just passing on what I heard and read..

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people say they will move / at least for the year.

But mass exodus may be unlikely but definitely more loss than they already have and that continues this year, I believe is possible.

Maybe. I’m a Fed with a junior. We’re here for my job. DH is remote for a west coast tech firm. But, I’m 90% certain post COVID I’ll be 100% remote. I was 60% before, but can do the job without an office. They have let a lot of our leased space go. If we aren’t back in the fall FT, DD wants to take English this summer and graduate, and we’ll let her. Our housing value is up. We’ll be living in Asheville next year and both remote working. DD will gap year. There is a plan. Otherwise, we’ll, let her finish and move. If I had kids younger than HS, that would be the plan. A lot of Feds and techies will never go back to the office. Why pay the DMV COL for crap schools?

COVID has changed how people work and go to school. The federal government gave up the Trump telework axing and Biden will make it permanent. We aren’t being allowed in our building even if we need to be there for at least six weeks because of Trump riot/ terrorism concerns.

COVID a is going to end with a workforce much more able to work offsite than they were. I haven’t been to my office in a year. My laptop died, they Fed exes it. My annual review was on Teams. Cost cutting post pandemic in the government is going to mean letting dead federal and tech office space no one has to go into in a year go. Lot of people moved here for jobs and schools. The schools have been a disaster and we can leave and keep the jobs. Why stay?

Yeah, for us it would be less about moving to private than just moving out of the area altogether. We don’t hate the DMV, but not sure it’s worth the price tag. The issues with the public schools are not going away and if anything the pandemic will make them worse.

Where will you move to? We moved to Maryland because of the good schools, so don’t know where else to go. Especially for our Special Needs kid.

^PP who looked into teaching in NC before... I remember hearing that Charlotte-Mecklenburg budget was so bad that 30+ kids in a class wasn’t unusual... and a teacher told me they had more kids than chairs in their classroom but the school wouldn’t buy more chairs so the teacher just rotated which two students would not have a chair each week. The teacher pay in NC is abysmal so they don’t want to waste money on supplying everything themselves I guess. Would be hard to do when you have rent to pay.

I almost took a job working for Wake County then they were going to pay me as if I had a bachelors because they voted out master’s pay in 2013 but put that in the world’s tiniest letters on the bottom of their scale that has a column for master’s pay that looked okay for the COL but the bachelors pay was quite a bit less. Apparently you only get master’s pay if you got your degree before 2013- the year they voted out master’s pay in NC.

If you think retention of teachers is bad in VA you should see NC... at least Charlotte-Meck and Wake had jobs up all year back in 2018 when I was considering it. I even had an offer after a simple phone interview (then found out they wouldn’t honor my master’s degree which was a $5k difference that would be hard to take as someone who would’ve been renting alone). Because the environment is so poor for teachers, I think they attract a lot of new teachers from all over who need experience... kinda like how FCPS seems pretty transient with young teachers from NY, PA, and other NE states where the conditions are better so it’s really competitive to get a teaching job and retention is pretty good. I’m working with a few 30+ year teachers right now. In VA I felt old at 30 bc the teachers were so young! Younger teachers often have a lot to offer to the students but I just mention age to help illustrate retention issues. In many states teaching ends up being not so great so a lot of younger teachers do their time for experience so they can be hired elsewhere or they go into other professions.

I’m rambling. It interests me how different schools are in this country (between states and districts in each state and even between individual schools in the same district). But I just don’t think NC is going to be that much better (if better) than where you are now. Sorry but you should just do a ton of research before moving.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people say they will move / at least for the year.

But mass exodus may be unlikely but definitely more loss than they already have and that continues this year, I believe is possible.

Maybe. I’m a Fed with a junior. We’re here for my job. DH is remote for a west coast tech firm. But, I’m 90% certain post COVID I’ll be 100% remote. I was 60% before, but can do the job without an office. They have let a lot of our leased space go. If we aren’t back in the fall FT, DD wants to take English this summer and graduate, and we’ll let her. Our housing value is up. We’ll be living in Asheville next year and both remote working. DD will gap year. There is a plan. Otherwise, we’ll, let her finish and move. If I had kids younger than HS, that would be the plan. A lot of Feds and techies will never go back to the office. Why pay the DMV COL for crap schools?

COVID has changed how people work and go to school. The federal government gave up the Trump telework axing and Biden will make it permanent. We aren’t being allowed in our building even if we need to be there for at least six weeks because of Trump riot/ terrorism concerns.

COVID a is going to end with a workforce much more able to work offsite than they were. I haven’t been to my office in a year. My laptop died, they Fed exes it. My annual review was on Teams. Cost cutting post pandemic in the government is going to mean letting dead federal and tech office space no one has to go into in a year go. Lot of people moved here for jobs and schools. The schools have been a disaster and we can leave and keep the jobs. Why stay?

I don’t think North Carolina is where you go for better schools...

Why not? I’m not familiar with Asheville schools in particular, but NC has other excellent public school systems.

Hahahaha no it does not.

Except for Apex, and Davidson and some parts of Charlotte.

Who wants to live in NC? I did Greensboro, Cary, Raleigh and the schools are a mess in most of the state. You don't like MOCO and Fairfax LOL NC is way worse.

Magnet schools are for busing and Federal dollars, Public schools are not neighborhood schools. Meaning buy a house your next store neighbor might be zoned for another school. Year round schools as wells some like that some do not. Schools are over crowded and large, large buildings.

NC has a ton of home schoolers that enter school around 3rd and 4th grade way way behind and the schools can not keep up. Not bashing home schooling at all, whatever works for your family. This is factual, has to do with ultra religious home schooling not following curriculim that public schools there require.

What NC does have is great colleges and good instate tuition costs.

Pp- meant to give you this list. Every state has good and bad schools (MA had some awful ones). But I don’t think a VA to NC move is going to get your child a better public education. Maybe though?

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education/prek-12

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people say they will move / at least for the year.

But mass exodus may be unlikely but definitely more loss than they already have and that continues this year, I believe is possible.

Maybe. I’m a Fed with a junior. We’re here for my job. DH is remote for a west coast tech firm. But, I’m 90% certain post COVID I’ll be 100% remote. I was 60% before, but can do the job without an office. They have let a lot of our leased space go. If we aren’t back in the fall FT, DD wants to take English this summer and graduate, and we’ll let her. Our housing value is up. We’ll be living in Asheville next year and both remote working. DD will gap year. There is a plan. Otherwise, we’ll, let her finish and move. If I had kids younger than HS, that would be the plan. A lot of Feds and techies will never go back to the office. Why pay the DMV COL for crap schools?

COVID has changed how people work and go to school. The federal government gave up the Trump telework axing and Biden will make it permanent. We aren’t being allowed in our building even if we need to be there for at least six weeks because of Trump riot/ terrorism concerns.

COVID a is going to end with a workforce much more able to work offsite than they were. I haven’t been to my office in a year. My laptop died, they Fed exes it. My annual review was on Teams. Cost cutting post pandemic in the government is going to mean letting dead federal and tech office space no one has to go into in a year go. Lot of people moved here for jobs and schools. The schools have been a disaster and we can leave and keep the jobs. Why stay?

I don’t think North Carolina is where you go for better schools...

Why not? I’m not familiar with Asheville schools in particular, but NC has other excellent public school systems.

I looked into teaching in North Carolina and was only told about how poorly teachers are treated there and how behind the kids are compared to other states. But to be fair I am from Massachusetts so when I taught in Virginia I was in shock over things (like lack of resources and the standards they use). But VA is rated as #8 and North Carolina as #28... so it’s not like NC is #50. It’s not the worst state to be in for public education k-12 but believe me- it’s probably worse than Virginia and it seems like you’re looking to get to be somewhere better. I’ve even heard Florida is better than North Carolina. I know people who live in both NC and FL, and their kids attend the schools. I also have taught in VA, MA, and RI.

#1 best district in NC might be Asheville (?) but that doesn’t mean it’s #1 compared to other states. It’s just #1 in that state and I’ve heard it’s pretty bad. But I also know someone who is from MA and moved their family to VA then came back here because the schools scared them (but they were not in NoVA).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people say they will move / at least for the year.

But mass exodus may be unlikely but definitely more loss than they already have and that continues this year, I believe is possible.

Maybe. I’m a Fed with a junior. We’re here for my job. DH is remote for a west coast tech firm. But, I’m 90% certain post COVID I’ll be 100% remote. I was 60% before, but can do the job without an office. They have let a lot of our leased space go. If we aren’t back in the fall FT, DD wants to take English this summer and graduate, and we’ll let her. Our housing value is up. We’ll be living in Asheville next year and both remote working. DD will gap year. There is a plan. Otherwise, we’ll, let her finish and move. If I had kids younger than HS, that would be the plan. A lot of Feds and techies will never go back to the office. Why pay the DMV COL for crap schools?

COVID has changed how people work and go to school. The federal government gave up the Trump telework axing and Biden will make it permanent. We aren’t being allowed in our building even if we need to be there for at least six weeks because of Trump riot/ terrorism concerns.

COVID a is going to end with a workforce much more able to work offsite than they were. I haven’t been to my office in a year. My laptop died, they Fed exes it. My annual review was on Teams. Cost cutting post pandemic in the government is going to mean letting dead federal and tech office space no one has to go into in a year go. Lot of people moved here for jobs and schools. The schools have been a disaster and we can leave and keep the jobs. Why stay?

I don’t think North Carolina is where you go for better schools...

Why not? I’m not familiar with Asheville schools in particular, but NC has other excellent public school systems.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Laughing at the we will homeschool because too much DL parents

Dunno why. We did that, withdrawing one of our children in January.

As of December, FCPS elementary has gone from 98208 to 89885 students. About 2300 of those are kindergarteners -- 17% -- and I don't think anyone knows how many of these have parents planning on sending them to first grade, how many are redshirted, and how many are going to stay in private.

So parents who think that spending all day supporting DL with little learning taking place and unhappy children is rational, but quitting to homeschool for a few hours and actually providing an education is irrational?

Exactly. I'm guessing the person laughing hasn't watched a child with a learning disability try to navigate DL. It's not hilarious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people say they will move / at least for the year.

But mass exodus may be unlikely but definitely more loss than they already have and that continues this year, I believe is possible.

Maybe. I’m a Fed with a junior. We’re here for my job. DH is remote for a west coast tech firm. But, I’m 90% certain post COVID I’ll be 100% remote. I was 60% before, but can do the job without an office. They have let a lot of our leased space go. If we aren’t back in the fall FT, DD wants to take English this summer and graduate, and we’ll let her. Our housing value is up. We’ll be living in Asheville next year and both remote working. DD will gap year. There is a plan. Otherwise, we’ll, let her finish and move. If I had kids younger than HS, that would be the plan. A lot of Feds and techies will never go back to the office. Why pay the DMV COL for crap schools?

COVID has changed how people work and go to school. The federal government gave up the Trump telework axing and Biden will make it permanent. We aren’t being allowed in our building even if we need to be there for at least six weeks because of Trump riot/ terrorism concerns.

COVID a is going to end with a workforce much more able to work offsite than they were. I haven’t been to my office in a year. My laptop died, they Fed exes it. My annual review was on Teams. Cost cutting post pandemic in the government is going to mean letting dead federal and tech office space no one has to go into in a year go. Lot of people moved here for jobs and schools. The schools have been a disaster and we can leave and keep the jobs. Why stay?

I don’t think North Carolina is where you go for better schools...