Sunday Leftovers
June 5, 2016QOD: N.J. Senate President Sweeney: I Support Standardized Tests and “See Value” in Charter Schools
June 6, 2016Christie Blames the N.J. Superintendent Cap on Teacher Unions and Says He’ll Think About it Another Day
Back in 2010 N.J. Governor Chris Christie “pretty much unilaterally,”reports today’s N.J. Spotlight, imposed a salary cap on school superintendents: up $175K per year for the state’s largest districts the same as his own salary, and as low as $125K for the state’s smallest districts. (Districts over 10,000 students are exempt; superintendents, at the discretion of the board and the executive county superintendent, are eligible for merit bonuses.) This cap has become the bane of superintendents, school boards (see this report from NJSBA for details), and the state association that represents school CEO’s.
Karen Lake was another schools leader highlighted in the report. The retired former superintendent of Hillsborough Township schools in Somerset County collects $131,964 in annual pension – but also makes $108,230 for working three days a week currently as interim superintendent at Mahwah schools, in Bergen County, the report states.
“It’s the way the system is set up,” said Lake. “I took advantage of it.”
“Why don’t you ask the teachers union, they’re the ones who asked me to put the caps on?” he said.
When pressed for his own intentions, Christie said he had not yet begun considering the prospect that lay more than six months away.
“I don’t have an intention,” he said. “It doesn’t sunset until November, and it’s June. I have a lot of decisions to make between now and November, and that one is not at the top of my list at the moment. Come October, I’ll start thinking about it
1 Comment
I oppose the supt salary cap too, but even without the cap NJ isn't going to be able to keep up with suburban New York State.
School spending in Rockland, Nassau, and especially Westchester is much higher than spending in even the wealthiest NJ districts.
Cross state per pupil spending comparisons can get fuzzy because of different ways spending is calculated, but NYS has a lot of districts that spend more than $25k per pupil, even more than $30,000 per pupil.
Counting pensions, the average NJ district spends about $19k per pupil, which happens to be South Orange-Maplewood's approximate level. Only one district in Westchester County spends at that level. New Rochelle is the second lowest spending district in Westchester, but it still spent $22,386 per student in 2014.
There are a few reasons for the NY/NJ disparities. NYS taxes and corporate fines are higher than NJ's, so it has more revenue, but also it is less indebted. Significantly, NYS's aid distribution is much flatter than NJ's and even very affluent districts in NYS get thousands of dollars per student in state aid.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/05/new_york_state_schools_ranked_by_spending_per_pupil_look_up_compare_any_district.html?appSession=23713941881775591871614562733730085406929311387471255322126002964933565762915663565080255954701997620751595525093690674366079642