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Zzyzx -
My husband and I live in Greenvalley. How do you like it in Austin?
Well let me tell you this. My wife and I left jobs that we enjoyed. Our pay went down about 30%. The cost of living is a bit more here for us. Property taxes and water bills pushed that over the top.
We would do it over again in a heartbeat. We love it here!
Hi- I knew I would get some guff from Austinites. They love to insult people who have different opinions than them. lol. The citizens here who have no experience living elsewhere are brainwashed in their constant pro-Austin propaganda. They get their knickers in a knot when someone dares criticize the place. This attitude is quite odd-but typical of the natives. The comment against teachers unions that the other person posted is also typical here-just warning you. This is a non-union state although I found Houston to be more liberal than here. This despite Austin's so-called liberal reputation. There are many teachers with years of experience who cannot find jobs and are hoping to get in by being a sub or teacher asst. But like I said-you might get lucky. The schools here are not "great." Some are better than others and it mostly depends on the socio-economic area it is in like anywhere else. Most of the schools in AISD are pretty bad. I cannot compare it to schools in LV although I have a teacher friend in LV and it sounds pretty good where she is-though it would be lower middle class area. Btw I applied to the district in LV and they gave me a phone interview. They said if I moved out I would get hired. I was pretty impressed by them. This is much more response than I ever got here. Also-a district in San Antonio offered me a job. (San Antonio is 75 miles away.)So I believe the problem here is too many teachers due to the universities nearby, etc. Also they hire plenty of non-certified teachers. Some are kinfolk hires , some are Spanish speakers, etc. Yes Austin is fairly green-greener than LV. There are a few things to do. True, I was used to a more diverse area so I suppose I was "spoiled." The highway accidents are plentiful for many reasons but I pointed out one big reason as it is probably the most startling thing you will notice on the roads as you move here. The truckers speeding by you in the left lane with their wheels falling off. Again-as someone accustomed to a better musical environment -Austin is really not good. Willy Nelson lives nearby, though. He's like the king here. I found the people in Houston-where I travel to regularly to be much more "normal." They also do not have the weird defensive attitude about their city that so many Austinites have. It is more of a real city and has more things to do. There is greenery there and the beaches-such as they are. I didn't like the desert flora too much in LV myself-but I still rank it higher than Austin overall. Have you ever checked out the Sonoran desert near Tucson? It is actually green and pretty.
As someone who lived in Houston for 15 yrs. I can tell you that Houstonians do have defensive attitudes about where they live. I could give you examples, but one only has to read the Houston boards to see it. As far as Natives in Austin, as in Houston these days, you'd actually be hard pressed to find one. So I think it's a great thing that people would move here and love it so much that they would defend it. 35 Is the main trucking thoroufare from Mexico to Canada. Many of the trucks you encounter on it are from those countries and they have different driver requirements than the U.S does, such as how many hours driving until they are required to stop and sleep. The inspections are also pitiful or completely lacking in a lot of cases, hence a lot of thrown tires and other parts. In many cases (especially Mexico) the drivers are not even trained to drive bobtails and semis, so there are lots of inexperienced drivers as well. But in defense of 35, this is the case all over the U.S. I25 in Denver was also a truck nightmare.
I just wanted to comment about the AWFUL benefits that AISD has to offer. My husband is a teacher and I am now a SAHM. I taught too, but soon realized that the 1000-1200 bucks a month it was costing us for infant care wasn't worth me crying over leaving my son every day. My husband brings home around $2500. To insure our family it would cost us $841 A MONTH. That is over 1/3 of his take home pay. All was good until we had a kid b/c the district covered our health insurance. So if you are planning to have children, please consider this.
--Also a master's here only pays $1000 a year more than a bachelor's.
The Cedar Park TX area is the 4th fast growing community in the country right now (so it said in our local paper) and in the top 10 (forgot what number) for raising families. Leander Independent School District is the District for Cedar Park, TX and it seems to be exploding with the population growth. We have so many new folks from California especially moving to the area. I substitute teach for LISD and find it interesting to know where all the new teachers are from. It's pretty amazing. I have two children in Elementary School and they are doing quite well. My husband and I are very happy with their academic growth. They are opening new schools it seems right and left with many in the works. Rezoning is driving us all crazy, but in a good way. None of the schools are bad. Look at the LISD job openings. They have a great website. Best wishes to you. My husband and I used to live in North Austin and then we had two children. I knew that I didn't want to live there when our first started school. We explored the area and settled in Cedar Park, TX. It is growing very fast though. From the looks of it, the growth will not stop any time soon.
I just wanted to comment about the AWFUL benefits that AISD has to offer. My husband is a teacher and I am now a SAHM. I taught too, but soon realized that the 1000-1200 bucks a month it was costing us for infant care wasn't worth me crying over leaving my son every day. My husband brings home around $2500. To insure our family it would cost us $841 A MONTH. That is over 1/3 of his take home pay. All was good until we had a kid b/c the district covered our health insurance. So if you are planning to have children, please consider this.
--Also a master's here only pays $1000 a year more than a bachelor's.
I have been looking at the disctricts websites, and benefits are a concern. We are hoping to start a family soon, and since we are both teachers, the other spouse can not take care of the family benefits from their job. I guess like most teachers I want a job with decent pay, and good benefits. We shall see.
That is why we are looking to relocate in a couple of years. It sounds horrible, but we have no future here b/c of low pay/poor benefits. Look at the salary scheds for each district and notice that they start high but never increase significantly with experience. You will both have to work full time to live here unless you are okay with living in small apartment, sharing a car, and not having good insurance for you and your children. My family is living it.
For example (AISD) new salary schedule:
No experience: 39,790
10 years: 42,990
20 years: 48,990
Not even 10k difference for 20 years in the classroom.
1. I agree that teacher salaries stink...they partly do it this way because teacher retirement is based on what you make in the last few years of teaching.
2. Some local districts are a bit higher: Leander Independent School District (http://www.leanderisd.org/default.aspx?name=employ.teach.scale - broken link)
3. People in all fiields have to map out their careers for maximum earning power:
As a college student, my sister chose teaching so she'd have the same schedule as her (future) kids. She became a science teacher for the stipend and chose a high paying district in Texas when she graduated. She's been in that district for 22 yrs. She also writes curriculum for the district in the summer. My husband is a project manager at Dell. Guess who makes more money.
Just some random thoughts...
As a college student, my sister chose teaching so she'd have the same schedule as her (future) kids. She became a science teacher for the stipend and chose a high paying district in Texas when she graduated. She's been in that district for 22 yrs. She also writes curriculum for the district in the summer. My husband is a project manager at Dell. Guess who makes more money.
if you can last in teaching you get about half your salary as a pension and you get decent health care to supplement Medicaid but you have to teach now until you are more than 60--and there is no guarantee what health care costs for retiree's share might be by then...also you pretty much forfet any share of your spousal SS check if you retire with full benefits becasue of the offset-penalty rule in SS--basically each dollar you get in teacher retirement pension offsets a dollar of spousal ss benefits--so if you would get 2500 from teacher retirement and would qualify for 950 as spousal benefit--you won't see any of it...because teachers in TX--most of them--work in districts that do not take out a SS portion---on fund for TRS--that way the district does not pay anything into SS either...
don't think Dell has company pension for current employees--only ones that have been there for significant period of time--like more than 15/20 years--now probably only company contributions toward 401K plan--might have stock options for desireable employees which school districts can't offer--Dell might stil be saying there will be health benefits but that is not a guarantee into the future...
Teachers' pay sucks because TX has lousy state legislature which for years used the "Robin Hood" tax reshuffle to avoid having to cough up more money to suppliment poorer funded districts in areas of the state from state funds--they took the money from tax money raised in local districts and use that to suppliment poorer--minority districts--totally illegal but the court challenges were brought by the wrong claimants--people were so stupid that they did not realize the districts were not the ones being stolen from--they were just the passthrough for the home owners' tax money--until individuals joined the law suit and objected to having their tax money wrongfully appropriated to serve other districts, the state got away with it....
another reason the benefits are so expensive is that even though every (like98%) teacher in public school in TX pays into teacher retirement program and they are considered a quasi-state employee (because if you have taught in public school and then go to work for the state in another type of job or vice versa and work long enough to retire, you can pool your teaching and state retirement deductions in the fund that you actually retire with and get credit for years of teaching or working for the state -- I know cause I did it...and it made a big difference in my teacher's pension ...) except for things like health insurance coverage...
needless to say, for health insurance teachers are not considered state employees...each district must apply for insurance coverage and get rate quotes based on their own individual employee pool and I guess their past histories---even though districts in some parts of TX are a street-width apart and even exist in the same city--like in N Tarrant Co--you can have Birdville ISD, HEB ISD, and Colleyville ISD all in city of Hurst TX--and also in other towns that are bedroom community close---don't you think those teachers would be living fairly close to that area and going to drs/hospitals in that immediate area---of course they are--
but those districts cannot pool their employees and get a rate quote based on a larger number which would be cheaper---everyone knows that larger companies with mass numbers of employees can get a better quote from insurance co because risk is spread out--the insurance companies know that the more people they have signed up in a variety of age/sex catagories, the better their chances of collecting premiums and paying out lower awards...they negotiate their fee schedules for drugs and care with the medical providers in the local areas--the more people THEY have in their plan, the more leverage they have with drs/hospitals to give them better prices...the WalMart policy---
the state does not want to have all teachers health insurance as a state employee group because then the legislature would definitely have to pay part of the costs--this way they lay it all off on the districts but don't let them do something that would alleviate the burden of the districts and the teachers....
If the state legislature would allow districts to form regional health care units so that each TEA region like Region 11 with about 40 individual school districts from 5-A districts to the smallest ones could be one health insurance group--the rates would be much more competitive (but insurance companies would not make so much money) ---but TX won't let the districts do that even though they have tried several times over the years...
who do you think has a larger lobby--the insurance companies or the ISDs--believe me, the ISD's do have a lobby organization but most of them are school admins or retired admins and there is not a lot of money to throw around. the insurance companies are more successful in keeping a very lucretive arrangement---
the legislature is just so short sighted and this issue is never presented as when people discuss how to lower insurance costs--you get all kinds of individual initiatives like not smoking, excercise, preventative maintenance...
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