Who’s Raking in the Big Bucks in “CharterWorld”?
Here’s a thought: What if school administrators were paid on a per-pupil basis? The salaries could be computed based on total enrollment, or, if you want to use VAM, a value-added measure, then the $$-per-pupil could be based on the number of students successfully completing the year.
For fun, let’s compare the pay pulled down by public school superintendents with the money paid to the CEO’s of some charter school networks. Before you read on, write down your hunch: which school CEO/Superintendent is raking in the most on a per-student basis? And who’s the lowest paid on a per-student basis?
Let’s begin with Chicago, where the public school enrollment (including charter schools) has dipped to 392,000 students. The Chicago school leader (called the CEO) is paid $250,000. That means he’s paid 64 cents per pupil. Factor out the 61,000 students in charter schools, and Forrest Claypool’s wages per student go up to 76 cents per kid.
One of Chicago’s leading charter networks, the nationally recognized Noble Network of Charter Schools, paid its CEO and founder Michael Milkie a salary of $209,520 and a bonus of $20,000. NNCS, which received the Broad Prize last year, enrolls 11,000 students, meaning that Mr. Milkie is paid $21.00 per student.
Let’s turn our attention to New York City. Chancellor Carmen Fariña presides over a school system with 1,1o0,000 students and is paid $227,727 per year. That comes to $.20 per child. But she also receives her retirement annuity of $208,506, so if we factor that in, she’s pulling down a whopping $.40 per child.
New York’s most prominent charter school operator is, of course, Eva Moskowitz, the Who’s Raking in the Big Bucks in “CharterWorld”? | The Merrow Report:
