School superintendents' salary caps

I had to laugh out loud at the suggestion by the Bayport-Blue Point school superintendent, Anthony Annunziato, that superintendents would leave the state en masse once their contracts expire if Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo enacts a salary cap ["Put a cap on it, guv says," News, March 1]. My answer to him is, go for it.

Except for maybe California and Illinois, he won't find salaries comparable to those on Long Island, even with the $175,000 cap. With this kind of economy, I'm sure there would be plenty of qualified people to step up and take those jobs, if not from around here, then from out of state.

The superintendents are not irreplaceable. The attitude he has is just like the air traffic controllers in the 1980s, who thought the world couldn't survive without them. We know what happen to them. It's reality-check time!

Mike Schnebel

Commack
 

As a teacher, I never thought that I would be defending administrators. However, the recent attacks on the salaries of our educational leaders are unfair.

If you worked in the private sector and were responsible for a budget of more than $125 million, you would not work for $300,000 a year. The superintendent in the district I teach in is on the job 24/7. He attends dozens of events each week. He has his finger on the pulse of almost everything that goes on in the community. In addition, he is in charge of hundreds of employees, and more than 6,000 students. He must be on top of the trends in education, and works tirelessly to keep our district near the top in achievement. Add to that the constant complaints he has to deal with, and you wonder how anyone can do this job.

The cost of living on Long Island does not compare with upstate. It amazes me that anyone would want the job.

Lee Gerber

Massapequa
 

Now that school administrators have priced themselves beyond economic means on Long Island, it would be wise to think outside the box. Overinflated, out-of-control school budgets have clearly put this issue on a path to crisis.

I have an idea. Why not relieve these high-priced administrators of their overpaid positions and have the teachers perform round-robin administrative duties? This would enable teachers to keep their jobs and would be real progress toward making it affordable for the increasingly poorer middle class to stay on Long Island.

Philip Winterfield

Sound Beach
 

According to Gov. Cuomo, capping the salaries of school superintendents would save $15 million. In the case of the highest paid superintendent, Carole Hankin of Syosset, that would mean a reduction of about $212,000 in one school year. This amount is a Band-Aid solution for a bleeding ulcer.

There is little doubt that a salary of more than a quarter-million dollars is a generous compensation. But how does this proposal solve our high property taxes? It may feel good to bash our district superintendents, but it does not control the increases in our general and school property taxes.

If the governor were serious about increasing revenue for the state and using that money for school aid, the solution would be a surtax on the income and bonuses of the banking, investment and insurance millionaires who caused our economic meltdown and are the only people who have fully recovered their loses.

Anthony Mignone

Massapequa Park
 

While I applaud Gov. Cuomo's attempts to rein in school spending and reduce the rate of property tax growth in our state, his latest recommendation to cap school chiefs' salaries at $175,000 is a bit of political showmanship.

While it is true that many Long Island school superintendents earn more than the governor, let's keep in mind that the governor also gets a mansion to live in, drivers and other perks. The issue isn't whether the school superintendents get paid too much. The issue is that there are too many school districts on Long Island, too many superintendents, assistant superintendents and other administrative staff in each district.

The only way we're ever going to truly reduce the cost of education on Long Island is by reducing the number of districts through the creation of townwide, or countywide school districts or by instituting an educational voucher program so that parents can choose where to send their children to school.

Let's start exploring some real options.

Frank J. Stalzer

Huntington