Who decides what a fair salary is in this case? Other cities with much larger districts, like Chicago (410,000 students) and New York (1.1 million students) pay their school heads far less. In fact, almost all cities do.
Ackerman says her years of experience - four decades in education -justifies her salary. She has also saved money, she says, by realigning district operations. The district now spends 6 percent of its budget on district operations; the standard is 5 to 8 percent.
To be fair, Ackerman didn't establish the standard for this high rate of pay. Her predecessor, Paul Vallas, had a base of $275,000, with perks that pushed his compensation beyond $500,000 a year. (Directly following Vallas, interim chief Tom Brady made $275,000). The fact is, rising school salaries coincide with the state takeover of the city's schools.
We support public education, especially those on the front lines, such as teachers and principals, who should be paid appropriately. And Ackerman apparently agrees, since she has paved the way for principals to be able to make $150,000.
But it's not just Ackerman's salary that is at issue. It's also the pay of the executives who surround her that sends the wrong message, on a number of fronts:
First, the city, the state and the district are struggling against harsh, new economic realities that could lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of education jobs. Mayor Nutter took a pay cut. The governor himself makes about half what Ackerman makes. Taking these comparisons as appropriate measures of value, how can the head of a district with 200,000 students be more valuable than the head of an entire state of 12 million?
