Transcript Are School Administrators Overpaid

Are School
Administrators
Overpaid??????
Beth Whitaker
A sticky situation


A lot of positions are overpaid and
underpaid.
How do you judge it?
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
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

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
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
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


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

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

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
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
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.
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.
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

2008 – 2009 Principal Salaries
Region
New England
Mideast
Amount
Compariso
n to
National
Average
97030 10.2%+
103564 17.6 %+
Southeast
82175 6.7%-
Great Lakes
87473 .7%-
Plains
83620 5%-
Southwest
74415 15.5%-
Rocky Mountains
79033 10.3%-
Far West
100596 14.2%+
Average
88062
ain
s
So
Ro
ut
hw
ck
es
yM
t
ou
nt
ain
s
Fa
rW
es
t
Av
er
ag
e
Pl
En
gla
nd
M
ide
as
So
t
ut
he
as
Gr
t
ea
tL
ak
es
Ne
w
Amount
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
Amount
Think school administrators are
overpaid? WE DON’T!!!
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