indigogirl1976

We moved here just under 5 years ago. $850-$950 is still about the average for a condo rental? It seems easier to get one in Palm Harbor ( the neighboring town to safety harbor) My mother in law is moving down here from Long Island, ny in October so I have been viewing a few condos in order to find her one before the move. House rentals are more. A decent house with a backyard is minimum of $1500 per month. Condos are cheaper and honestly not bad for young family's. We loved having the shared pool. The house we bought doesn't have a pool :-( The car insurance here is lower. Our $80 a month was fully comp'. We have 2 cars now. Our second one is a old beat up Toyota on which we have just the basic as basic can be coverage. Through geico our coverage is $120 a month...fully comp on our main car and basic on our second and that's with me and my husband named as drivers. My husband took the safe driving course recently and that brought it down a little. I just did a comparison with State Farm and progressive and they were all coming out with $20 or so of each other. I know when my husband was living on Long Island it was WAY more. He was shocked at how low it is in Florida. The daycare rates are per week. I should have mentioned that.

scrubbedexpat099

Those prices are a lot lower than say Denver.

Pulaski

Car insurance with an acceptable level of coverage is most certainly not cheaper than the UK, it is more expensive as many many posters on BE have noted. It might be cheaper than the NYC area, because car insurance is pretty crazy up there.

You apparently don't realise that US (varies by state) car insurance has specified coverage levels (nothing to do with UK-style "fully comp", TPF&T, etc.), which are often pretty pathetic. Some have low coverage, or even no coverage, for property damage, so if you T-bone someone's Mercedes or Ferrari, you are going to find yourself in a whole of hurt! ..... Think "bankruptcy".

There are also similarly inadequate insurance levels for personal injury.

AmerLisa

there's always going to be a need to do better, Pulaski....

indigogirl1976

Sorry...you are right. I was talking about it being cheaper than other parts of the states- paticualry the ones that my in laws live in (ny and nj). I wasn't talking about the UK. We went through our policy and added extra coverage for property damage ($75000...which is still low but we will raise it when I go back to work) and we have good personal injury but there is a $500 deductible. We don't use our cars that often so it's a calculated risk on our part. I'm hope we never have to use it! Anyway...my main point being that I find living here to the other states and countries I have lived in to be fairly affordable and a nice standard of living. I know two teachers and it is doable but it's up to the op to weigh the pros and cons. I was merely pointing out that we were able to do it. When we first moved here my husband earned $49000 per year ...I stayed at home and we lived quite comfortably. We could never do that on Long Island or in NJ which is why we moved here.

Bob

Down our way, they get placed by the district too. They might apply and have a preference for a particular school in the district but they are employed by the district and will be moved to cover a shortage or for any other reason.

It has happened to a few kindergarten teachers we know who are very unhappy about that.

AmerLisa

Yes I can well imagine they would be. I wonder why they do it that way. I've been looking at several district HR sites and every opening is for a specific school and grade that I've seen. The jobs that you're talking about seem more like substitute positions.

Bob

No, these are full time. One teacher was at the school for several years and got moved to a school across town because a teacher there retired or moved on and so it was a case of move or leave.

It's like this up where MIL teaches in Maine too. You apply for a specific job opening but once hired, you are not guaranteed that you will stay at that school.

AmerLisa

Very interesting. I wouldn't want to be a teacher there.

Peachbythebeach

Our district hires looking at the total number of openings in the district and then decides who goes where. An opening in one school doesn't mean you'll teach there - they may move an existing teacher there and the new person can end up where that teacher had been.

Also, all teachers are on the same pay scale here. So a teacher with a master's degree with say, 3 years experience, will earn the same salary whether it's a science teacher, phys. ed. teacher, elementary teacher, etc. Special Ed teachers don't earn more than anyone else on same salary step.

I'm in downstate NY, by the way.

As Pulaski said, some places hire inexperienced teachers because they are cheaper, i.e. only have a bachelor's degree rather than a master's.

AmerLisa

Very interesting. I talked to a neighbor who is a middle school teacher (teaching for 12+ years) and she was amazed as I about the hiring practices. When you apply you do go through the district, of course, but you are applying for a particular school and grade/department. The principal from that particular school does the interview, he/she decide whether they want you and then district (HR) does the hiring stuff.

I know there are various salary differences for teachers here as well.

Edit to add that new teachers are routinely hired here with a bachelors, straight out of college. I don't think having a masters makes you a more proficient teacher.

Bob

Around here, it's used as a filter. So many applications, from people with experience, that they use it to weed people out.

Shithole locations will hire freshly trained teachers and offer something towards further education as an enticement over salary though. That's what our neighbour is doing, last year left and then she's off looking for a new job not in a crapper of a location as she finished her masters last year or there abouts and won't have to pay it back doing this year.

Clrsth

I am just been employed as a teacher in PA - I was qualified in Scotland, but your are able to teach in a private school with an overseas teaching qualification. Where we live there are lots of private schools, and how you fit into the school is as important as your teaching qualification - for instance if you were Catholic you would be much more likely to get work in a Catholic school. I needed to undergo all FBI fingerprint checks and child protection clearances, but did not need to be certified by the state. You might therefore want to research how many private schools there are in the area that you want to live.

ddsrph

I think that most teachers get hired with only a bachelors degree and later get their masters with courses at night and during summers. Another thing I have hesitated to mention as it would only appeal to a few but check into Alaska. Maybe not as a permanent home but a place to work a few years and save a bundle of money. In particular the local native population hire teachers for positions in their villages and also provide housing. The Alaska government with other federal monies pays the costs. Alaska is over twice the size of Texas and it would be a great adventure for a young couple. I did a couple of military excercises there in the late nineties providing dental care in remote villages. When they say remote they mean it. I met some contract teachers during this time. Pay is very high in Alaska and if you are getting free housing you could save a lot of money.

kodokan

Same in my old school district in Arizona - my daughter's old principal was moved in 2014, very much not at her request. She was in a nice cushy little 10/10 school with a very convivial intake, whereas her new school was... not those things...

(I was quite pleased by this - I didn't rate her much and thought she was complacently coasting. The new guy they replaced her with is amazingly proactive, has already fixed long-running problems like rerouting the flow for the buses and car drop-off lanes, and is very present on the campus - outside every single day for drop-off/ pick-up, high-fiving the kids and knowing them all by name - whereas I saw her just twice in the 4 years I was there, and one of those times was when I went into her office to complete the registration forms.)

I think Florida is like Arizona in that it's very right-wing in its government and keeps property taxes as low as possible, consequently having very little to spend on education? I imagine it's what its older population base vote for, but I don't think I'd want to be a teacher there if I had any other choice. I'm seeing a night-and-day difference in the level of enthusiasm and commitment in the teachers here in Ohio, who're being paid a ton more for a similar cost-of-living area.