I wonder where that sense of entitlement comes from. IINM, LA has the priciest real estate in the country, but still, this guy could make HALF that and still be "wealthy".

And, sadly, school administrators, those at the top of the food chain and salary chart, are not known for fighting the mediocrity caused by government oversight and political correctness, among other causes. Not that these same people have a monopoly on earning far more than they deserve.

This is kinda a bass-ackward way of looking at it..

LA Unified is the second largest district in the US, with ~700K student and 80,000 employees.

How much does the CEO of a company with 80,000 employees make?

The CEO's of the S&P 500 have a median pay of 8 say-it-with-me-now MILLION dollars a year PLUS bene's...

you have to look at it that way, AND THEN, you can DEMAND that they give you some value add for the dollar.

why would anyone think that some guy with 80K employees shouldn't be paid well?

We're looking at schools all wrong when we demand that leaders aren't paid well, but that they keep the bus from running off a cliff.

It's a start, and getting all critical over it makes it that much less likely that anyone else will step up.

The search for cosmic justice continues.

Although we typically do everything bigger in Texas. the following is not something I'm proud of. The school superintendent in Beaumont, Texas; Dr. Carroll Thomas, makes $334, 212 per year, and receives a 3% raise annually. The BISD has 19,309 students.

There has been some discussion that perhaps his salary may be a tiny bit out of line, but given the ethnicity of Dr. Thomas (black), and the ethnicity of the school board (also majority black) an adjustment is unlikely at this time.

How much does the CEO of a company with 80,000 employees make?

The CEO's of the S&P 500 have a median pay of 8 say-it-with-me-now MILLION dollars a year PLUS bene's

Well the super isn't a CEO, and real CEO's don't make that kind of money in income. That sort of compensation comes from options and bonuses and such.

Also you have to figure that with his $330K in income he's also getting terrific medical and pension. If you roll the value of those into income, using the same formulas that they use in private companies, he's probably making closer to $500K.

how is a Superintendent not a Chief Executive Officer? I would say what they do is similar... also? so he get's the same medical and pension benes, median CEO still makes 16x as much.

FWIW, Chicago public schools head is called the CEO...

on the other claw, as with a regular CEO, much of this pay question is market driven, IE, what's it worth to the district, vs. other districts. Supt. [Chancellor] of New York Pub. [Largest in the US] makes $250k... but there are many smaller districts in the country who make much more.

Are we paying these people less because it's a cost center and not a revenue center?

The comparison between a CEO and a school superintendent is not valid.

I'll cite the former CEO of United Technologies. He made millions, mostly in stock options, while the corporation outperformed its peers and the stockholders made billions. If he were a machine, you'd call him an excellent investment. I was just a low level cog in the corporation, but my 401K would be far worse without his tenure. He didn't do it all alone, and painful cuts were made along the way, present company included (outsourced and still working here), but I'd have to be stupid to deny that the man measurably improved the value of the company to its owners.

What is your school superintendent accountable for? Teacher performance? Don't make me laugh, they're unionized and immune. Graduation rates? Standardized test scores? I'll bet those are more closely correlated with median incomes in your school district than anything else you can name. What, exactly, are you getting for yor school taxes and how does the superintendent influence it?

They don't make the huge salaries because the job doesn't justify them.

just because ceo's are overpaid that is no excuse to overpay a civil servant

that's my point MarkD...
you think the Supt. isn't worth money becasue he/she doesn't bring any money in. Becasue education is a COST center.

This is what makes the compensation of anyone in the school system particularly difficult to figure out. Money isn't the bottom line, so it's astonishingly hard to measure stuff...

If anything, the Supt. has much larger issue, because of the unions, the voters, taxbase, and all of it. Many times their hands are entirely tied. Other times? The corrupt incompetance of the politically connected get's someone who should never be a super, into the office, and they run the system into the ground...

Seems like it has to be a fundamental change to get the right people in place, paid the right amount...
Instead of finding the best person who will work for what little you are paying. How many teachers have Masters degrees and years of experience, who could double their slaries if they worked in the corporate world?

How many teachers have Masters degrees and years of experience, who could double their salaries if they worked in the corporate world?

Lets break out some fallacies to this whole argument

Where in the U.S. Constitution is a public education written? (I'm sure it is in some state constitution.)

Where are the unions written in the constitution?

Would we have better schools (and teachers) if tenure and raises were based on merit instead of union raises?

What if education was private and schools had to compete?

What if you weren't guaranteed your position?

And if you can make so much more money in the private sector -- why aren't you?

This is similar to Amy's surgeon friend working three hours and making $65. He made a contract to do it. If you don't like the agreement -- find something else to do or make sure you you negotiate the contract you find acceptable.

The issue with a union is the same as a football team. You can't fly like an eagle when you're surrounded by a bunch of turkeys.

How many teachers have Masters degrees and years of experience, who could double their slaries if they worked in the corporate world?

Relatively few, actually. The average salary of a corporate white collar worker is well under $100,000. It's probably not too different from what a teacher with seniority makes. Of course, the teacher does get June, July and August off, as well as school holidays.

The value, to a corporation, of degrees in education is fairly low. They're about as good as any other liberal arts degree. An accounting or finance or engineering major brings specific skills.

I'm not saying liberal arts majors are worthless in the corporate world--they're not. But advanced degrees in education don't translate to additional value in the corporate world.

the thing is JimP. some people actually believe in service, on the religious side, it's "The Call" it's what makes the mamalady teach in an innercity Phoenix school, instead of making much more in Scottsdale, or going back to the business world she came form 25 years ago... I can't explain it in easy terms, and I've been trying to get her to take the better paying Spec. Ed. jobs in a better district, but it's The Call...

that's why I talk about it being hard, for every good teacher like that, there is one who teaches in the inner city because it's the only place that will hire them, because people willing to teach there are scarce.

As for unions, well they're not everywhere, Arizona doesn't have them... but they are quite a hinderance to an actual good teacher, because as you say, you can't soar.

Eh, Gordon, I can see that I wasn't clear... What is the difference in what an MBA makes and what an MEd. makes, that was my point. Not that they are necessarily transferable. Many of my teacher friends lasted about 5 years out of college, and said "this is stupid, I can't afford to make so little for such grief" and went on to the business world. The ones left felt The Call.

If that makes sense. The amount of work and time off and such varies, A LOT, so it's not too easy to make generalizations there. Last year my mom got 2 weeks off during the summer. The rest of the time she was teaching summer school...