Issue Position: Increase teacher pay so we're competitive with the rest of Northern Virginia

Issue Position

Prince William County and the City of Manassas Park, the two localities that make up the 13th District,are in last place among Northern Virginia's nine localities in teacher pay. Here are the FY 2016 average teacher salaries per locality, according to the Virginia Department of Education:

Alexandria: $75,604

Falls Church: $75,564

Arlington: $74,613

Fairfax (County and City):$68,687

Manassas: $67,333

Loudoun: $63,553

Manassas Park: $62,097

Prince William: $53,353

We're behind the City of Manassas - our immediate neighbor - by a lot. This is not a new problem and every teacher in Prince William and Manassas Park knows it. When we underpay our teachers, we don't just make it harder to recruit the best and brightest to teach here but we make it more difficult for those who do teach here to afford to buy a house here. This isn't just about recruiting the best and brightest teachers, it's about retaining teachers too.

So let's get serious and boost our education funding by diversifying our tax base at the local level and work together at the state level to find a way to offer raises instead of bonuses for our teachers.

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