Teachers make too much money?
While I would certainly disagree, there are plenty who think teachers make too much money. Teacher salaries are the largest part of the FCPS budget, after all. The largest part of the projected shortfall for the 16-17 budget is teacher compensation - get rid of the compensation increases, and the problem is solved, right?
Nope.
It doesn't matter if FCPS teachers make too much or not enough. What matters is that FCPS teachers make less than surrounding school districts:
Lower Teacher Pay in Fairfax County Causing Good Teachers to Leave
Teachers will and should leave FCPS to work in higher-paying districts. I know several that have already resigned from the county and accepted higher-paying positions elsewhere.
From Dr. Garza:
We have fallen so far behind in teacher salaries that we are no longer competitive and are losing talented staff to neighboring school districts. Our teachers are the reason FCPS students excel and achieve. Losing our most experienced teachers will have a significant effect on student performance and will ultimately affect the reputation of FCPS.
While the only measure of an FCPS teacher's salary that matters is one that compares FCPS compensation to surrounding districts, here are two common misconceptions about teacher pay just for fun:
1. Teachers get summers off
Actually, teachers are unemployed for ten weeks. Teachers are not paid for the summer.
2. School dismisses at 3:00 PM = Teachers stop working at 3:00 PM
In an elementary school teacher's day, about a hundred minutes are spent without children. Three of those roughly 8 hours are spent in planning meetings, leaving five hours per week for grading four subjects, planning for four to five subjects, creating tests, creating rubrics, creating projects, counting money (for field trips, t-shirts, musical instruments, pictures, missing library books, before and after school clubs, etc.) and emailing parents. At the elementary setting, planning for four subjects could mean as many 10 lessons or more per day. How does that add up? One reading lesson for the whole group, two to three small group reading lessons; a whole group writing lesson; one to two small group writing lessons; a whole group social studies and/or science lesson; a whole group math lesson; and two to three small group math lessons. Teaching is also one of few professions (that I'm aware of, at least) in which one must write down what the plan is (often in more than one place), then write down what one is doing while executing the plan, and then write what one did. Something like "I'm going to do A. I am doing A. I did A."
Five hours isn't enough time for all that. Teachers get these things done during non-contract hours. Having to take work home is true in most jobs, of course; but many assume it is not true for teaching.
Teachers making too much money is not a valid reason for short changing the school district $130 million.
JCT
While I would certainly disagree, there are plenty who think teachers make too much money. Teacher salaries are the largest part of the FCPS budget, after all. The largest part of the projected shortfall for the 16-17 budget is teacher compensation - get rid of the compensation increases, and the problem is solved, right?
Nope.
It doesn't matter if FCPS teachers make too much or not enough. What matters is that FCPS teachers make less than surrounding school districts:
Lower Teacher Pay in Fairfax County Causing Good Teachers to Leave
Teachers will and should leave FCPS to work in higher-paying districts. I know several that have already resigned from the county and accepted higher-paying positions elsewhere.
From Dr. Garza:
We have fallen so far behind in teacher salaries that we are no longer competitive and are losing talented staff to neighboring school districts. Our teachers are the reason FCPS students excel and achieve. Losing our most experienced teachers will have a significant effect on student performance and will ultimately affect the reputation of FCPS.
While the only measure of an FCPS teacher's salary that matters is one that compares FCPS compensation to surrounding districts, here are two common misconceptions about teacher pay just for fun:
1. Teachers get summers off
Actually, teachers are unemployed for ten weeks. Teachers are not paid for the summer.
2. School dismisses at 3:00 PM = Teachers stop working at 3:00 PM
In an elementary school teacher's day, about a hundred minutes are spent without children. Three of those roughly 8 hours are spent in planning meetings, leaving five hours per week for grading four subjects, planning for four to five subjects, creating tests, creating rubrics, creating projects, counting money (for field trips, t-shirts, musical instruments, pictures, missing library books, before and after school clubs, etc.) and emailing parents. At the elementary setting, planning for four subjects could mean as many 10 lessons or more per day. How does that add up? One reading lesson for the whole group, two to three small group reading lessons; a whole group writing lesson; one to two small group writing lessons; a whole group social studies and/or science lesson; a whole group math lesson; and two to three small group math lessons. Teaching is also one of few professions (that I'm aware of, at least) in which one must write down what the plan is (often in more than one place), then write down what one is doing while executing the plan, and then write what one did. Something like "I'm going to do A. I am doing A. I did A."
Five hours isn't enough time for all that. Teachers get these things done during non-contract hours. Having to take work home is true in most jobs, of course; but many assume it is not true for teaching.
Teachers making too much money is not a valid reason for short changing the school district $130 million.
JCT
