NJ Education Report

James Ahearn of The Record on superintendent salary caps:

Christie isn’t the first American governor to peg superintendent salaries to his own. Minnesota used to limit superintendents to 95 percent of the governor’s salary. As a result, by 1997 a critical shortage of superintendents had developed. While teachers in Minnesota were paid the national average for their jobs and principals got slightly more than the national average for theirs, superintendents averaged $72,000, or $26,000 below the national figure for their jobs.

Administrators with the qualifications and the oomph to seek and obtain jobs in other states did so, en masse. Minnesota abandoned the 95 percent pay cap.

Here’s a better idea: cap superintendent salaries in small non-K-12 districts in order to promote consolidation and shared services. Leave large K-12 districts alone. If one of those small districts agrees to share a superintendent (or business administrator, or special services director) with a larger neighboring district, let free market prevail in establishing salaries.