I'm going to give some general info and financial info, but any advice is appreciated.
I'm 34 years old, work in education as an administrator, make $77,000/yr, and currently have student debt to the tune of just under $30,000 from my master's program. I own a home here with about $30,000 in equity. I'm on an aggressive debt repayment schedule since most of the student loans are at 6% interest. I have a job that I worked hard to get, and have been in this position for 1 year. I'm not in love with it. It requires quite a bit of daily travel and a lot of stress, and frankly I miss having students. I work all year (no summer break like teachers) but still get regular school holidays plus ten vacation days.
There is an opening in Alaska for a full time teaching position in my subject area and grade level, which doesn't open up often (not math or science, but an elective area). It's in a good location, a small city just south of Anchorage. I figure that even with the cost of living increases, I would save money by going to AK. One, I would be eligible for student loan forgiveness. Two, there just aren't as many places to spend money. Three, I would rent instead of own and could drastically downsize (I bought too much house but my house is smaller than average for my area). Unfortunately, Alaskan school districts don't publish salary schedules so I have no idea if the salary would be 40,000 or 75,000. It would likely be somewhere between those two numbers, and probably closer to the lower end.
Part of me thinks I should stick it out here for one more year and become debt free BEFORE making a big life change. I think it would look bad to leave admin after just one year to go back to the classroom. I'm good at my job and I don't want to look incompetent. But I love the idea of the adventure and the change of scenery. Deep down, I think I would love it. I'm an outdoorsy person and the city I live in currently is not outdoors friendly.
So, am I crazy to even entertain the thought? Should I just take a vacation and get over it? Or do I have nothing to lose by applying and seeing what happens? (I don't necessarily want my employer to know I'm looking, so any automated reference checks would flag them, which could be a downside to just applying.) Any Alaskan mustachians out there?