What Does a Superintendent Make?
Interesting reading over at Education Week. It seems that our Superintendent is not the only well-paid superintendent in the country. New Jersey's governor makes less than 75% of New Jersey's local superintendents. New York's governor makes less than the NYC superintendent (by almost half).
What struck me is that both the superintendents of the LA Unified school district AND the superintendent of NYC make less than Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, by a lot (NYC, $250k/LA, $250K). Folks, we are an urban district but we are small and manageable district by comparison to Detroit, Chicago, LA or NYC.
From the article:
In some states, you could certainly argue that being a school superintendent is a more difficult job worthy of more compensation, though I don't think that is the case currently in California and New York, where both governors have found it next to impossible to govern much of anything lately.
Also from the article:
Intuitively, it seems completely out of whack for a district superintendent to make more than the CEO of an entire state. But some of this has to do with the fact that some salaries for governors were set eons ago and don't get tweaked much. No one has to use a compensation package to get the best "hire" for the governor's office; those folks self-select by running for the office. While governors and superintendents are public servants, they operate in entirely different markets.
In the comments section, one reader added a graphic showing how salaries in NYC compare from teacher to principal to chancellor (their superintendent) to charter school overseers. Pretty interesting. I don't think all charter school principals make a lot of money but I would think most of the operators of the firms for the large charter school groups do.
What struck me is that both the superintendents of the LA Unified school district AND the superintendent of NYC make less than Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, by a lot (NYC, $250k/LA, $250K). Folks, we are an urban district but we are small and manageable district by comparison to Detroit, Chicago, LA or NYC.
From the article:
In some states, you could certainly argue that being a school superintendent is a more difficult job worthy of more compensation, though I don't think that is the case currently in California and New York, where both governors have found it next to impossible to govern much of anything lately.
Also from the article:
Intuitively, it seems completely out of whack for a district superintendent to make more than the CEO of an entire state. But some of this has to do with the fact that some salaries for governors were set eons ago and don't get tweaked much. No one has to use a compensation package to get the best "hire" for the governor's office; those folks self-select by running for the office. While governors and superintendents are public servants, they operate in entirely different markets.
In the comments section, one reader added a graphic showing how salaries in NYC compare from teacher to principal to chancellor (their superintendent) to charter school overseers. Pretty interesting. I don't think all charter school principals make a lot of money but I would think most of the operators of the firms for the large charter school groups do.
Comments
Again, someone who is great is worth the money. Someone who brings in staff from previous employment AND gets a high salary and yet gets poor marks for management from the State Auditor, well, not such a great deal.
Again, what makes her so much better than Klein in NYC and Corines in LA?
It's a visual trick that's misleading, and not worth the "cute" graphics.
I do not consider the superintendent's salary an issue. She's paid at a fairly common level for supervisory professionals in lots of fields.
Joel Klein at NYC clearly accepted a less than his "market rate" salary to take the position because he wanted to work on the problem. He left the Justice Department after being the lead prosecutor for US v Microsoft. He could easily have been hired into a law firm for much more money. He is also married to the General Counsel of Sony Corp, which probably simplifies his willingness to accept the salary that he does for the position.
I simply don't consider the superintendent's salary out of line for what we want her to do. Now, I think it's quite reasonable to spend a lot of energy complaining about whether she does it. But, if she did, I wouldn't see the salary as being an issue at all.
And governors are not comparable at all to superintendents. As elected officials, it looks bad for them to have enormously high salaries. Also, a superintendent pretty much lives on her salary. A governor, once out of office, can generally support herself on the lecture circuit and/or take on consulting or board positions. Governors usually have a house and staff that come with the job too.
Comparing either superintendents or governors to CEOs is just silly.
After that comes the Board's failure to verify the false statement that the superintendent's salary is typical.
After that comes her poor performance. Actually, her poor performance doesn't really tie to her salary because I'm not interested in poor performance at any price.
Lots of studies show that money isn't much of an incentive for people who do cognitive work. I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't work just as hard for $50,000 less.
WHAT is someone doing which requires them getting paid more than 50 million or 200 million other people working?
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2010/tables/10s0689.pdf
There were appx. 238,000,000 Americans over age 15 or 16 with what they defined at Money Income. People making over 200k were appx. 2,238,000/238,000,000
I'm sure those making over 200k could ALL justify their salaries! Being at the top means you get to hire people to tell you how great you are!
For the few hundred million of us below $100,000 a year, we're paid by several variables, one of the key variables being -
what can they replace you for?
Isn't it interesting how that variable is NOT emphasized when we get to higher pay grades? The conversation is always a comparison - well so & so makes 250k, so I should make 275k! - kind of discussion.
For that 200,000,000 +++ of us making under $100,000 a year, know what your boss says when you come in and say that so and so down the street makes more money for the same job? 70% or 90% of the time the boss says - BYE!!
Cuz I can replace YOU, and I will.
(sometimes you are actually worth your money ... sometimes)
I guess I should stop being so resentful - kind of $ocial cla$$ i$ it?
Maybe I should just keep watching that Elvis in Vegas youtube where Elvis is singing "How Great Thou Art"!
BM.
More at Seattle2010recall
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012426458_recall23m.html
- The Super makes about $355k including benefits. Of course, she should take whatever they give her. It's the Board's duty to know what the going rate is. Only one person of the current Board was on the Board at the time she was selected and that is Michael DeBell.
-the Board is supposedly her boss (one of their few legal duties is to oversee her work). They select the Superintendent and make the salary offering (probably based on advice from both legal counsel as well as headhunters).
-the Board job has only a small stipend of about $4800 per year (and I think they get reimbursed some for gas/other expenses). It is largely a thankless volunteer job.
HERE
Check the salary of three in Bell, CA here.
And did you notice how these administrators ended up with such lucrative packages - law changes hidden in obscure ballots passed by a veritable handful of citizens...
We are strangers in a strange, strange land....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land
I did an analysis of two Board members at the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, which is the parent of the New Technology Network.
When looking at the number of hours worked and then expanding the rate to 40 hrs per week for a year. Those Directors were making $800,000 per year.
Obama/Duncan's Race to the Bank is sponsored by folks like this.
Turn around supposedly failing schools with NTN. They love it. Ka Ching ... Ka Ching
Problem is when checking the data NTN has turned around nothing but Sacramento spends $1400 more per student on the New Tech Sacramento school than the Sacramento schools average per student. Seattle is on track to do the same "turnaround" in financially troubled times. Well if you are a KWF director the times are not financially troubling for you.
If our exceedingly well-paid MGJ gets the boot here, Broad will make sure she's placed somewhere else...