And yet, administrative salaries at the district, which have gone up since the state takeover in 2002, continue to rise under Ackerman.
By any measure, Ackerman herself is handsomely paid, hired at a salary of $325,000, not including perks, benefits and bonuses. The base salary of the superintendent of Chicago is $230,000, while the heads of New York City and Los Angeles school districts each make $250,000.
Ackerman's contract also called for a pay increase similar to what teachers received in collective bargaining. With the nation mired in the great recession, she blew an opportunity to demonstrate leadership and reject her increase, instead taking a 4 percent bump that pushed her annual salary up by $13,000 to $338,000. Other district administrators received 3 percent increases.
Compare that to Mayor Nutter, who is legally entitled to $198,658 a year. He took a voluntary pay cut that made his effective salary $167,440, less than half of Ackerman's. The mayor's chief of staff took a 10 percent cut, cabinet members a 5 percent cut and some midlevel officials in the offices of the mayor and managing director took 3.75 percent cuts.
Those cuts don't include 10 furlough days over the past two years, which represent an additional 4 percent salary decrease.
Rendell, whose salary is a whisper of Ackerman's at $178,000, voluntarily relinquished a cost-of-living increase this year, rolling his salary back to $175,000. His cabinet officials followed suit.
To appreciate the increasing salaries of top district administrators, consider that before the state takeover, the base salary of Superintendent David Hornbeck was $170,000, or adjusted for today's dollars, $220,000 - $105,000 lower than Ackerman's.
