The Beacon, a weekly paper in Lambertville (Hunterdon County), praises two local school districts for freezing administrators’ salaries for the coming year. Lambertville Public School and West Amwell Elementary School share a superintendent and a business administrator. What’s that save them? $10K? Hey, it’s real money.

At any rate, the editorial, perhaps inadvertently, gets to the real point of this new trend (yes, it’s a trend) of freezing the salaries of top administrators, often at their own behest and over (muted) polite protests from the board members.:

If the economy and the finances of the State of New Jersey continue to be concerns, schools — state aid or not — might have to find less expensive ways to do a good job of educating children.

It’s not about the paltry numbers generated by an administrative salary freeze. It’s the precedent it sets for the NJEA and its local chapters. In other words, if the head honcho forgoes a salary increase in order to accrue money for educational services that would otherwise be cut in a wretched economy, should his minions also make a sacrifice?

“But of course!” say local school boards.

“Au contraire,” bespeaks NJEA.

It’s a battle that will be played out on the stage of all contract negotiations in the foreseeable future. Freezing administrative salaries sets the scene.