Superintendent Salaries Under Attack

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has followed up on a critique he made when he unveiled his budget and proposed legislation that would limit the salaries of school superintendents across the state.
The cap, which has been introduced in the Senate (SB 3655) by Republican Charles Fuschillo, would be based upon student enrollment and could allegedly save the state $15 million.
The cap would range from $125,000 for districts with less than 250 enrolled students to $175,000 for districts with more than 6,500 enrolled students. There are currently 223 superintendents that earn more that $175,00.
"We must wake up to hte new economic reality that government must be more efficient and cut the cost of bureaucracy," said Cuomo. "Reducing back-office overhead, administration, consultants and encouraging consolidations are the best targets to find savings."
The proposal is in conjunction with a similar measure from Fuschillo, who has legislation (SB 3624) that would cap the salaries of school administrators.
These proposed administrative cuts were strongly opposed by Robert Lowry, of the NYS Council of Superintendents, when he spoke before the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. He noted that eliminating every cent of spending on central administration would not fill the hole the governor's cuts would create, which meant that services would be reduced and layoffs would happen.