Christie Aims to Limit NJ School Superintendents' Pay
New Jersey governor Chris Christie is expanding the so-called "toolkit" of reforms that municipalities can use to keep their budgets within the two-percent annual cap on property tax increases.
KYW's David Madden reports that this one deals with what school superintendents are paid:
The average superintendent's salary in districts with more than 1,000 students is just over $192,000 per year, and trends show those numbers going up at more than twice the rate of inflation.
So Christie's plan would cap those salaries on a sliding scale from $120,000 to $175,000, based on population, effective as individual contracts come up for renewal.
New Jersey education commissioner Bret Schundler says administrative salaries run the gamut:
"The superintendents who are getting paid beyond all reason may not like this policy, but the others will see it as bringing some sense to a system that's very chaotic."
Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, believes the move is based more on politics than need:
"There's clear evidence New Jersey's administrative costs are ninth lowest in the nation, according to the federal data, so we're apparently attempting to solve a problem that doesn't exist."
The association predicts the change will cause many good superintendents to work elsewhere.
Schundler plans public hearings in September and intends to issue a new policy by year's end that would place the cap into effect by administrative order.