Arlington County seems to pay much more than FCPS, but I've heard different stories on the retirements. Anyone know what the differences are in pension/retirement between the two counties as well as any other important positives and negatives about working for each county?

I believe FCPS pension is 85% of the salary for a teacher's top 3 years averaged out. Example $80,000 average for final 3 years multiplied by 85% would be a pension of $68,000 a year.

Don't know about Arlington.

Pickle Surprise Wrote:
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> I believe FCPS pension is 85% of the salary for a
> teacher's top 3 years averaged out. Example
> $80,000 average for final 3 years multiplied by
> 85% would be a pension of $68,000 a year.


It's about 50%

Whatever it is, wouldn't it be the same for both since it is a state pension?

Looks like it's about 51%:

About Your Plan

Your plan is a defined benefit plan. Under this plan, your retirement benefit is based on your age, service credit and average final compensation at retirement using a formula. For most members in the defined benefit plan, the unreduced benefit replaces approximately 51 percent of the member's average highest salary.

http://www.varetire.org/members/benefits/defined-benefit/plan.asp?pt=p1&pn=vrs

No one in the country beats the AAP program in FFX - no one. I know parents with kids in Arlington and its OK for smart students but it does not have a dedicated AAP Level IV service like ours.

You can't compare unless you look at outcomes for students at least five years out of high school (and ten would be better). That data does not seem to be available.

That's just for the VRS that you get 51%. What about the retirement from the county. How much do you get from the county in addition to the state pension payout?

what about Wrote:
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> That's just for the VRS that you get 51%. What
> about the retirement from the county. How much do
> you get from the county in addition to the state
> pension payout?

Fairfax County does have a supplemental retirement to the VRS. I don't know how much it provides, but I can try to find out. Does Arlington have a supplemental plan? Not all districts do. For example, PW doesn't have one.

PW contributes to a 403(b) instead of having a supplemental plan (they match a certain percentage based on years of service). It's pretty good. The FFX supplemental plan (called ERFC) is a percentage deducted from the employee paycheck and is really only useful if you start teaching at age 25 and stay until 55. If you have 30 years in, you can then go out at 55 and take the FFX supplemental until age 65. Then at 65 the supplemental is reduced when your VRS kicks in. It basically covers you for those 10 years. But if you are a late comer to FCPS, it doesn't really pay. You need to get the 30 years in VRS to get a decent pension.

works like this Wrote:
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> PW contributes to a 403(b) instead of having a
> supplemental plan (they match a certain percentage
> based on years of service). It's pretty good.
> The FFX supplemental plan (called ERFC) is a
> percentage deducted from the employee paycheck and
> is really only useful if you start teaching at age
> 25 and stay until 55. If you have 30 years in,
> you can then go out at 55 and take the FFX
> supplemental until age 65. Then at 65 the
> supplemental is reduced when your VRS kicks in.
> It basically covers you for those 10 years. But
> if you are a late comer to FCPS, it doesn't really
> pay. You need to get the 30 years in VRS to get a
> decent pension.

The PW plan is also optional. ERFC is not.