Except for the last few years, our teachers have received regular COLA increases as well as annual step increases. They are well paid compared to other jurisdictions. I do believe teachers generally work very hard and they have a difficult job but throwing money at the issue does not improve education. The budget increases we have seen over the years have not made our education system better, partially because the schools do not put the money towards education. One problem is the large number of administrators at each school.

20 years ago a typical high school had one principle and maybe two or three vice principles, depending on the size of the school. Now there are probably ten administrators at a typical school and they do less work than in years past. I taught at three County High Schools in the last decade and all of them discouraged sending a problem student to administrators. Oh, I'm sorry, there is no such thing as a problem student - classroom management is a teacher problem - as we would hear often. Consequently, teachers are spending way too much time dealing with disruptive students at the expense of the other students.

Another problem is that teachers do not have enough time to teach, grade, and prepare lessons. This could be helped by getting rid of many useless meetings - often required by new programs every year that serve no other purpose than to pad an administrator's resume.

The biggest problem I see, and not just in Fairfax county, but everywhere., is that many teachers do not have classroom management skills, as in they do not know how to get the respect of the students and maintain control of the classroom. Young teachers have told me that is the most challenging part of being a new teacher, and that they have felt "thrown to the wolves" without these skills. Why is more training, such as Mandt (not the physical interaction side of it, rather the interpersonal side of it) not mandatory for all school professionals??

Having skills such as these would change the whole dynamic of behavior issues, including bullying, that our schools now face....

Teachers have one of the toughest jobs out there. They spend 8 hours educating our children at school, then several more hours each night grading papers, creating lesson plans, and dealing with other miscellaneous administrative tasks (all of this without receiving over time). They are rarely supported by parents and are the first blamed when a child doesn't succeed. As also mentioned above by Nein, they are expected to attend training sessions and implement programs while receiving no additional time, pay, or support.

I know several young teachers with masters degrees that haven't received a raise since they began teaching several years ago. I am a high school graduate without a college degree and I make more money while working less hours than they do. This is just wrong. As a county, our most precious asset is our children. We need to put their best interest first.

Maybe one of the reasons the teachers Michele has mentioned above don't know how to control their classrooms are because of the mass amount of administrative work placed on the teachers. Teaching is no longer viewed as the craft that it once was and has instead become a rigorous schedule of teaching to the test. If more parents backed and supported our teachers and were more involved with our schools (and their children) maybe the behavior issues and bullying wouldn't be such a problem and our teachers could focus on TEACHING. Give the teachers more pay! They deserve it!

Let's face it, I have attempted to be an involved, but not overbearing parent for my son's whole school career . That means emailing teachers, offering to volunteer in the classroom, library, PTA, etc. Most teachers that my son has had want little interaction. Many will not return calls or emails. It is hard to be involved and support teachers when they will not communicate. I know more parents would put the effort out if they felt that the teachers did actually want the support that they complain about not having....

When I lived in southwestern VA, the first school my son attended had a policy that teachers must attend 2 PTA meetings per year. The principal or a vice principal was at every meeting. That school had an average of 75 parents at each PTA meeting (total enrollment was under 400 students). Parents were regular fixtures at the school. Here, when my son was in LTES (enrollment around 800), it was amazing to have 10 parents show for a PTA meeting..... I wonder why???

And I totally agree that teachers need to be MUCH higher paid, BTW!

@Michele that's really too bad that you've had this experience. I have never heard of a teacher not responding to a parent like that.

@RMCQ -- you're right about the ridiculous number of meetings. Next week I have a two hour meeting during the "half day Monday", which is supposed to be for planning and material preparation. One of my co-workers has to be at three before-school meetings next week and none of them have anything to do with what she does because she's in Special Ed. I myself have one before school meeting. Plus when you're in Special Ed, you have IEP meetings for your students, some of which can take not only 10 hours or more of preparation work but six or eight hours of meetings -- per student! Needless to say this takes a teacher out of the classroom for all those hours which affects all the students. Far too many meetings are being held over issues that could be settled by email!

Schools are in total disrepair, class sizes are at all time highs (1st grade has no less than 27 per student at my girlfriend's school), but meanwhile the Gatehouse palace floors stay polished. And people wonder why we have a funding crisis.

One solution to the these problems would be a school voucher program that allowed schools to compete for students. This would result in less administrative overhead, most likely lower operating costs for the schools, and most definitely higher quality education. Also, some families would choose to send their children to online learning acadamies thus reducing class size at traditional schools. Vouchers would also increase vocational, music options for parents if they so choose.

There is truth in the old saying "You get what you pay for''.Why is it that the greatest country on the planet comes in behind Finland, Germany,France etc. in the areas of math and science? ?? Inexcusable! We need to stop increasing class sizes and give teachers the time to plan .The students need a routine that is not constantly interrupted with someone's ''feather-in-the cap" project .Our distinguished Secretary of Education(Mr Duncan)travels the world to experience other forms of educational systems to better ours .However, the answer lies in the RESPECT accorded to educators in the USA. We award Pro athletes millions of dollars to entertain us ,yet we cringe when public servants request a cost of living increase ? Pay them what they are worth !! Paying higher starting salaries for teachers (i.e. 50k) will attract a better pool of applicants who will hold our students to higher standards . In this society, MONEY = RESPECT . Require a Master's degree in their SUBJECT area (FIVE years after obtaining their b.a/b.s degree) INSTEAD of a degree in Education with a "minor" in their subject area and hire Administrators that can stand up to helicopter parents whose children do not perform and who divert their parental obligations to school nurses and classroom teachers . Other countries pay their teachers very well for a 20 - 25 hr work week and the results reflect that . WE HAVE TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT EDUCATING OUR YOUTH...THEY ARE THE FUTURE OF THIS GREAT COUNTRY !!!

FLES is an issue of inequity just like the Full-Day Kindergarten issue. If FCPS cannot afford to give it to all students, it shouldn't offer it. There are plenty of other resources parents can take advantage of themselves in our community for foreign language services. These dollars instead should be used to increase teacher compensation and to immediately lower class size. School Board Chair Jane Strauss should be held to her campaign commitment to do these two things first. Public education services should be equitably doled out. It is time to end the education services by zip code and the practice of School Board members doling out goodies like foreign language to their favorite schools who support those candidates during re-election season!

Reduce the number of unnecessary administrators (regulation and paper-pushers) at the central administration building on Gatehouse Road! Yes, pay teachers more. Yes, reduce some of the unneeded credentials required to be able to teach in the classroom.