WV Teachers Head to DC Suburbs

[MountainLaurel]

Interesting issue: I personally know at least five teachers who live in Charles Town/Martinsburg/Harpers Ferry and work in Loudoun County, including one of my oldest friends. Her major reason for doing it was financial: As a single woman, she just couldn't afford to buy a home (or even a mobile home and some land to put it on) on what Berkeley County was paying her. Also, hetting her master's degree would barely raise her income in WV, whereas it's worth $10K in VA. The other issue is that she's a special ed teacher, and those programs are waaay underfunded in comparison to the need. (She had more kids at a time than the law allows, was teaching kids with behavior disorders even though she wasn't certified to, and got tired of coming home with bruises from violent second-graders.) Loudoun County's gain is presenting a serious loss to the WV public schools.

After more than 20 years in West Virginia schools, Cynthia Rocheck, a special education teacher who lives in the Eastern Panhandle, celebrated her first payday in Loudoun County three weeks ago.

"When I saw my first paycheck, I almost cried all the way home. I was like, 'Thank you, Lord.' It was awesome," she said.

Rocheck, 51, decided to change jobs last year after a divorce led to her borrowing money to cover bills for herself and her two teenagers. She nearly doubled her $44,000 salary by driving over the Blue Ridge Mountains and across the state line.

A former colleague with 23 years of experience at the same Berkeley County high school boosted her salary from $47,000 to $61,000. She did so by trading her five-minute commute for a sometimes two-hour drive, to teach British literature to sophomores at Dominion High School in Sterling. Louise Mann, 54, said she also gained a fully funded pension rather than one that matched her savings.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/24/AR2005092401414.html

[wellstone_democrat]

1. I have a doctorate and don't make what the second one made

in WV never mind VA. I think I need to change to secondary ed this college teaching just isn't paying the bills.

on edit: all those degrees and can't reliably spell...

[acmejack]

2. I wasn't surprised to see you were in Texas!

Saddened, but not surprised. West Central, eh?

[wellstone_democrat]

3. Yep, and at 41,000 a year

for a 10 year veteran professor with the appropriate achievements I like to say that its not unusual. At UT-Austin and main campus A*M you do a *little* better but not significantly at the same rank in the same fields. Its a low paying state. But, I have friends in other state systems who don't do all that much better.

However, here, the high school teachers do on average make less than I do so *everyone* in our proudly individualistic society gets lousy pay. But, we know that high paying states and private systems are "socialist" or something so we do have our comforts :evilgrin: