Teacher salaries lowest in region
DATABASE: Prince William County employee database
The starting salary for teachers in Prince William County is among the lowest in the region, and with projected budget shortfalls looming, salaries are not expected to get much better, school officials said during a recent School Board meeting.
The Prince William County School Board heard a presentation at its last meeting comparing teacher salaries and class sizes in county schools to those in neighboring jurisdictions.
According to data presented by school officials, and taken from the Washington Area Boards of Education guide, Prince William ranks the lowest among school divisions in the Washington area, both in starting salaries and average salaries for teachers.
This year the starting salary for a first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree was $42,354 in Prince William County. The highest salary for a first-year teacher in the region is in Montgomery County, Md., where the starting salary was $45,410 this year.
In Fairfax County, the starting salary for teachers was $44,789 this year. In Manassas, the starting salary is $43,296.
In Manassas Park, which is not included in the WABE guide, the starting salary for first-year teachers was $43,300 this year, according to the school division’s approved salary scale.
According to the WABE guide, Prince William County’s average teacher salary is also the lowest in the Washington area at $57,406. The highest average salary is $75,517 in Montgomery County. In Fairfax County, the average salary is $66,237 and in Manassas it’s $63,160.
Some School Board members said they were concerned about the teacher salaries.
But board member Betty Covington said the salaries do not reflect the benefits offered to school division employees.
“Yes, we are lowest on the teacher salary ... but we have a fabulous benefits package that this doesn’t show,” Covington said.
School officials also presented data related to class size. In Prince William County there is an average of 23.3 students per teacher at the kindergarten level, compared to 17.8 in Montgomery County, 20 in Manassas and 21.6 in Fairfax County.
Prince William County also has the highest pupil-teacher ratios in the area at the middle school and high school levels, according to the WABE data.
School Board member Julie Lucas said that information is “hard to swallow” as school officials are set to begin their budget planning season.
School officials are projecting a large budget shortfall that would make it difficult to increase teacher salaries or reduce class sizes by much, though no budget specifics have yet been revealed.
Superintendent Steven L. Walts is expected to present his proposed budget to the School Board next week.
Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.
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Reader Reactions
There are no teachers making the higher end of the money. Those are people that have worked for the county as teachers for 15+ years. Do they get bonuses like private companies when things are great - no. Bunch of complainers
ads80,
I don’t think you see the layoff numbers for teachers that you do for any other occupation. Yes, you are right that a small number of teachers are let go because of budgeting concerns. However, you’d see the same thing in the private sector - if you hire too many clerks and not enough sales people you may have to trim clerks and up your salespeople. In this case, you may have to trim math teachers (all they do is teach math ebonics anyways now) and up history teachers, for example.
Funny you mention that ‘whatever county I was educated in, they ...produced such ignorance and arrogance.
I was educated in Prince William County and am a product of Hylton High School, class of 94.
As for a teacher, yes I have never held that job title. But, I did for a time in my life train federal, state and local law enforcement officers and agents on computer security, chasing down child predators, and prosecution of those people. My ‘classes’ had 20-30 armed persons - how many persons were armed in your classes?
Teachers are paid a very fair salary for the work they provide. I would not support additional funding for schools. Waste within the school system will need to be dealt with before asking for another taxpayer bailout from the teachers association.
mmarin
FYI, teachers are getting laid off too….ones that have been there a decade or more. there is not always job security in the jobs that people ‘flock’ to as you say. i can bet you money, although i don’t know what your current job is, that you would not last for one minute as a teacher. teachers do deserve more pay but we don’t do it for the pay, we do it for the kids.
and yes money should go into schools…clearly in whatever county you were educated in, they didn’t spend enough of their money on schools or they would’ve have produced such ignorance and arrogance.
I was kind of prepared to read this article and be outraged but I wasn’t. The “Lowest salary in the region” isn’t THAT much lower than Fairfax. And Fairfax is a little more expensive place to live.
$42K is really not a bad starting salary for a first year teacher.
If we have teachers who have proven over a few years to be effective, then I’m all in favor of paying those teachers more money.
Take a look at the salaries of FIRST GRADE teachers on the database . You will find 10 that make $80K or more, 10 in the $70K-79K, 44 make $60-69, 58 make $50-59K. Remember the AVERAGE salary is $57K and last I heard they have a pension plan. BTW, I have lived all my life in NVA and I understand what $40K a year gets you. It gets you a LOCAL job.
dcorb1966,
It’s not about jealousy that 40K is ‘too’ much as I earn more than that. it’s the audacity that some teachers demonstrate by getting a nice starting salary, VERY nice benefit package, job security and then telling people that they still need more.
It’s a hard pill to swallow when as a taxpayer we see over 57% of the counties revenue spent in the school system and you hear about $6M renovations to add 6 classrooms to a school.
We will not have a shortage of teachers as in any recession cycle people flock to the safety of government jobs and teaching positions.
Those that can do; those that can’t teach.
in case you weren’t sure…by the way…that’s 1,750.00 a paycheck, before taxes…
yea, if you divide the pay by nine months, it sounds great, doesn’t it?? But guess what…it’s 2 paychecks a month for 12 months…comes out to a lot less per month when you do the math correctly buddy…
I have never read so much garbage from a bunch of idiots. I guess those that think teachers pay at 40 grand a year is too much. Obviously, you do not make that yourself. Otherwise, you would realize this is nothing in NVA.
Keep this up and nobody will go into teaching. Where would this get us.
Every spring, I wish I had gone into teaching; and every September, I’m thankful I didn’t.
The starting pay isn’t bad for being fresh out of college. That isn’t a story, it’s the 3% max increase every year after that bites. Unfortunately, inherently good educators don’t go into teaching because they have families to support.
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