Are School Administrators Overpaid??????

1. Are School Administrators Overpaid?????? Beth Whitaker

2. A sticky situation • A lot of positions are overpaid and underpaid. • How do you judge it?

3. What some people think: • I think I am fine with Administrators pay. They have to have so much education and that cost money and has to be paid back. Also, teachers should be paid more so that they can pay their student loans off. I do think we have too many chiefs and not enough indians as to say. More so in some schools then others. • Teacher, HCS

4. If you are talking about principals and assistant principals, I do not feel they are overpaid.  There is a lot of responsibility involved with being an administrator.  There are budgets to meet, curriculum to develop and follow, supervision of employees and students as well as decisions that have to be made concerning the school and its properties.    If you are talking about other people at the district level that are paid as an administrator, I do not have enough information regarding their salaries and/or job responsibilities in order to give an opinion.  • Teacher, HCS

5. I think it depends on the administrator. I believe many administrators work hard for their money and deserve the salary that they receive. I think it is important to keep in mind that administrators should receive a salary larger than teachers and reflective of their responsibility. In many cases in NY, teachers retire making $80,000 a year. An administrator that makes $115,000 a year will only be making $20 more a day than a teacher. A teacher only works part of the year. An administrator works year round and over school breaks when teachers are off. I think people need to think about the amount of hours and added responsibility an administrator has over a teacher for not a large difference in pay when taken over a year. Teacher, former HCS

6. No.  Administrators have very difficult jobs ranging from curriculum to scheduling to discipline and to logistics.  It takes time and effort to do the job properly; therefore, that sometimes means putting forth their own personal time and energy into the school, its teachers, and students. Counselor, HCS

7. Ok – here’s my two cents. It is my belief that while administrators are not overpaid, there is too much duplication in positions across districts.  It has long been recommended that school districts could be combined in order to relieve duplication of services and instill consistency across the schools in curriculum, discipline and other policies.  There are 47 counties in the state of SC, yet there are 102 school districts.  Even if the argument of location and community individuality is applied, there is still no reason that many of these districts could not be combined, thus eliminating the need for 102 separate superintendents, directors of curriculum, etc. Parent – Lexington/Richland 1 District

8. Personally, I believe administrators and/or teachers  are not paid enough for teaching children today.     These individuals are responsible for the knowledge, well-being, and sometimes home life children have.   Seems most parents are not contributing enough education and up-bringing to their children and it’s up to the school system to do so.   This is putting a great deal of stress on the administrators and teachers nationwide.  Personally, I feel they should be paid more for all they contribute in the lives of children.   I know you would be a great administrator and should be paid for your hard work in getting there as well as paving the way for future children.   It’s like the old saying “you pay for what you get.”  If you pay more you attract better quality, you pay less you receive less!  I like the quote below because everyone complains about administrators etc.. making too much but if they had the opportunity how would they feel about it…. •    I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.  ~Mark Twain • Taxpayer – Lancaster County School District

9. I do believe that school administrators are overpaid.  They may have different responsibilities than teachers but we are on the “front lines” of educating these kids.  What we could do for our kids with that extra money is limitless.  Hire more qualified Special Education teachers for our inclusion classes where these kids are not receiving services but continue to struggle and keep up with the work (science and social studies).  Some may say that they work during the summer, well so do many teachers.  In 10 years of teaching I can only think of a couple of summers where I just enjoyed the entire summer without having classes to take, conferences to attend, summer school to teach.  They do work long hours but so do we.  We spend so much of our “personal/family” time at home working on school work to benefit our students and we are not compensated for it.  Just because we are not physically in the building doesn’t mean we do not work.  No one enters the education field to “get rich”.  It’s a public service job.  We should not be paying people over $100,000 to sit in an office and push papers and attend conferences that do not directly benefit our kids. • Teacher, HCS

10. In general, I do not think administrators are overpaid.  I believe that the education field as a whole (especially teachers) are underpaid.  In my opinion, if teachers were to get paid more, we would not have a problem of administrators making a lot more money than us.  Having an administrator make $100k or so per year is really not bad comparing to other jobs that require leadership & managerial skills. I think the problem is that you have people in these positions that are making $100k+ but are not very good at their jobs.  That is what makes it hard to justify.  However, that is the case in any job.  You will always have people that are in positions and that make a lot of money that are not very good at what they do.  When an administrator is really good at their job, respected, trusted, and valued, then it is easier to except their salaries.  I think that in the education field, there are plenty of overpaid people.  There is a lot of "middle management".  I guess in our case that would be people at the district office.  There are too many people to answer to and I am not certain of their exact necessity in the scheme of things.  I think that having specialists in areas is important but how many do we really need to get it right?  • Teacher, HCS

11. What research says: • The same thing previous people said: No one can actually agree. • According to “Countering Three Misconceptions about Administrators” administrators are not paid too much based on experience and education. • AVG- principals 22 years exp/ teacher 14 • 44% principals hold a degree beyond a master’s while only 5.4 % of teachers - 2008

12. Compared to other industries • Median administrator salary is 82,120 while internists is 167, 270; lawyers, 118,280, corporate CEO’s, 151,370; and airline pilots, 148,810. • Comparison of teacher to admin. – ratio is 1.61; nurses to internists, 2.68; paralegals to lawyers, 2.48; accountants/auditors to CEO’s, 2.4; and flight attendants to pilots, co-pilots to flight engineers; 2.37.

13. Another Study • Middle school average admin salary has grown from 80,708 in 2003 – 91,334 in 2008. • High school average admin salary has grown from 86,452 in 2003 – 97,486 in 2008.

14. In New Jersey • Major problems with pay for administrators: • Unused vacation and sick leave – 8 administrators cashed in 1.21 million from 1999-2004. • Cash bonuses were added in before retirement to increase pensions • Superintendent had public contract of 210,750 but actually recvd 347,462 with cashed-in leave and other perks Effect – NJ is revamping their compensation policies to make the public more aware

15. 2008 – 2009 Principal Salaries

17. Think school administrators are overpaid? WE DON’T!!!

18. Works Cited • Bradley, A. (2008). Survey Finds Principals' Pay Gains Outpacing Consumer Price Index. Education Week, 27(27), 4. Retrieved from EBSCOhost • Cooke, W. D., & Licciardi, C. (2009). Principals' Salaries, 2008-2009. Principal, 88(5), 27-30. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. • Maxwell, L. A. (2006). Administrators' Pay Packages Under Scrutiny in N.J. Education Week, 25(30), 30-31. Retrieved from EBSCOhost