Your Moment Of Chris Christie Awesome: Cap School Superintendent Pay

From late last week but still worth noting.

In reality the proposed cap on school administrator compensation would amount to a pay cut for about 75% superintendents statewide.

"People are bouncing around like free agents in baseball, and getting higher and higher salaries as they go," Christie said at a news conference at a Spotswood elementary school. "What we’re trying to do here is to shift the paradigm."

Maximum pay for superintendents would be pegged to enrollment, from $120,000 for the smallest districts up to $175,000 for districts with between 3,000 and 10,000 students. The 16 largest districts do not have an upper limit, but Schundler said he expects pay to drop there too, as the Department of Education sets criteria tailored to their needs.

The salary limits would also apply to nontenured assistant superintendents and business administrators at the start of their next contract, while those who are tenured and earning higher than the scale would see their pay frozen, Schundler said. Interim superintendents also would be covered by the rules, he said.

..."It seems to be just foolish, because many superintendents would be making less than the principals working in their district," said Jim O’Neill, superintendent in the District of the Chathams in Morris County. O’Neill, who makes $210,000, would see his pay drop to $175,000 for overseeing a district of about 4,000 students.

"I think that if he was on the other side of this, he would call this arbitrary and capricious," O’Neill said.

It wouldn't cover teachers or others covered by collective bargaining agreements so it's not everything one could hope for but it's a start.

As outlined by the million dollar a year city manager story below, right now all the pressure on public employee salaries are biased toward increasing them. This is a great way to start pushing back.

Since administrators are always less popular than teachers, this proposal will get wider support (like this editorial). The trick is, once you get people acclimated to the idea that not only should public employee pay be limited but that it can be, odds are it will start to spread to other job titles.

Once again, Christie leads the way.

*I had this up for a minute or two earlier but took it down when I realized I'd posted at the same time as Ace.

posted by DrewM. at 02:39 PM

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