Arlington Leads Region in Teacher Salaries

Arlington, VA Sun Gazette ^ | 12/28/05 | SCOTT McCAFFREY

[chambley1]

The combination of higher starting salaries and longer-serving educators has kept Arlington’s average teacher salary above all other Northern Virginia jurisdictions this year, and more than 40 percent higher than the average salary for teachers statewide and nationwide.

The Arlington school system has budgeted for an average teacher salary of $66,308 for the current fiscal year, according to figures released Nov. 30 by the Virginia Department of Education.

That’s up from $61,407 actually spent per teacher in the past school year, and up from $60,014 two years ago. Teachers with the most seniority and advanced degrees can earn upwards of $90,000 for a 10-month annual contract.

Of the six major school districts in Northern Virginia, Arlington ranks highest in projected per-teacher salaries, followed by Alexandria ($63,363), Fairfax County ($60,673), Falls Church ($59,636), Loudoun County ($53,096) and Prince William County ($52,238).

Statewide, the average budgeted teacher salary for the current school year is $47,310.

“Those numbers don’t surprise me,” School Board Chairman Dave Foster said in an interview.

Foster said that Arlington operates in a competitive environment, particularly with school systems that are hiring teachers to meet the growth of students.

“We need to always be in the ballpark on salaries,” he said. “We can’t be number one every year, but we need to at least be competitive.”

But Tim Wise, president of the Arlington County Taxpayers Association, said teachers are reaping the windfall from a revenue-sharing agreement between the school system and county government, which funnels more money into the schools despite declining enrollment.

“It seems that school officials may be using the excessive money gleaned through the revenue-sha-ing agreement to reward Arlington teachers in excess of that needed to maintain a quality teaching cadre,” Wise said.

The school system’s benefits package is worth approximately $19,000 more per teacher, according to a regional study released earlier this year.

One reason Arlington’s average salary is higher is that, unlike outlying suburbs, the school system’s student body is relatively stable.

Student growth in jurisdictions such as Loudoun and Prince William counties, even in massive Fairfax County, requires those districts to add hundreds of additional teachers each year. Those teachers enter the system at the bottom end of the pay scale, lowering average salaries.

Arlington, by contrast, has seen slight declines in student enrollment in past years, to about 18,500 students. Approximately 2,485 of the school system’s 3,600 jobs are directly in the schools, a number that includes administrators and support personnel as well as teachers. The remaining 1,100 or so positions are in specialized programs or the administrative offices.

Those 2,485 school-based positions account for $155 million in salaries and benefits. All told, the school system this year plans to spend $260 million in salaries and benefits, up from $164 million in 1998 – up about 59 percent during the period.

Nationwide, Connecticut has the highest average teacher salary at $56,516, according to the most recent figures from the American Federation of Teachers. South Dakota has the lowest, at $33,236. Nationally, the average teacher salary is $44,244, according to union figures.

[mallardx]

Wow! Three months off every year, pensions for life, teachers have an unbelievably sweet deal.

[lizma]

Starting pay in Montgomery County just across the Potomac is $50 bucks an hour when you consider benefits and required work hours. It tops off at about $150/hr for those close to retirement. One teacher told me that if you would have told her told her 40 years ago that she would have been raking in this much money teaching 2nd graders, she would have laughed.

The unions are still whining about it though, of coarse.