Schools

Teachers Dressing Casual For a Raise in Fairfax County

"A Dressing Down" is making a fashion statement in a classroom near you.

The old rule of  dressing for the job you want appears to have been replaced in some Fairfax County classrooms with dressing for the statement you want to make.

For the teachers involved, that statement is that they want a raise.

The fashion choice of jeans, T-shirts and other casual attire is billed as a "Fairfax County teacher demonstration" to combat what the website, adressingdown.com, refers to as "the perennial salary squeeze."

What do you think of the teachers making a salary statement in the classroom? Is it past time for a raise? Tell us in the comments below!

"Fairfax County boasts its top-performing schools and Fairfax property values are boosted accordingly," the site continues. "Teachers should not have to commute because they can no longer afford to live in those same neighborhoods."

Fairfax County Schools administrators have pitched a raise in the proposed 2015 budget, but it isn't clear whether that is in the cards for final approval. 

Woodson High teacher Katherine Sebunia told the Washington Post that teachers were brainstorming ideas to call attention to the salary issue and one teacher noted that a second wardrobe for work was too expensive.

“The idea was that we’re not going to spend money on professional clothes, we’re going to spend it on groceries,” said Sebunia.

The Post noted that, in 2014, the average teacher salary in Fairfax is $67,245. The average teacher salary in Arlington is $74,903 and the average in Montgomery County is $74,038.


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