Superintendent Salary Cap - Senate Bill 133

   Senate Bill 133 is an Act relating to school superintendents which establishes... a maximum salary schedule for superintendents and prohibits local school district boards of education from entering into or renewing contracts above certain caps. The teacher salary issue (Oklahoma teacher salaries ranked dead last in the nation when compared to other state teacher salaries) can be solved if we only cap the salaries of fat-cat overpaid superintendents - and give teachers the money saved. According to the sponsors of Senate Bill 133, if we could just eliminate/consolidate "school administration", classrooms would be rolling in money - to be used for teacher pay raises and operational costs and our school budget crisis would be over.
   The Bill caps superintendent salaries in differing amounts based on the number of enrolled students for each school district: A superintendent's salary is capped at $65,000 if the school enrollment is 100 students or less; capped at $85,000 for enrollment between 100 and 150; capped at $95,000 for enrollment between 150 and 200; capped at $100,000 for enrollment between 200 and 250; capped at $110,000 for enrollment between 250 and 750; capped at $120,000 for enrollment between 750 and 1500; capped at $130,000 for enrollment between 1500 and 3000; capped at $140,000 for enrollment between 3000 and 6500; capped at $150,000 for enrollment of more than 6500. The authors of the Bill believe that schools will save $millions once this plan is implemented, as school superintendents earn $millions.
   In actuality, once SB 133 became law, very little money would be saved, and it could actually increase administrative costs for most schools. For example, there are 40 superintendents with enrollments of between 200 and 250 students. The salary cap for each of these 40 superintendents is a maximum $100,000, so the maximum allowable combined salaries is $4,000,000. Superintendent contracts in 2015-2016 for the 40 school districts revealed that the combined salaries only totaled $2,924,935 - which is far less than the allowable cap. As a matter of fact, 37 of the 40 superintendents earned much less than the $100,000 cap, while only 3 earned slightly more. The three superintendents exceeded the salary cap by a whopping $9,649, which theoretically could provide 1000 teachers with a $9.70 pay raise each year. Woo Hoo! Eighty cents more in teacher pay checks each month to spend any way they like.
   Local communities and local school boards are just as opposed to state government running our public schools as they are opposed to the federal government running our schools. Our Oklahoma citizens believe that local control of our schools is always best, and resent state legislators passing laws which take away that local governance. If Senate Bill 133 eventually becomes law, look for many local boards of education to elevate their superintendent salaries to the maximum allowable. This phenomenon (SB 133) could serve to increase the present $2,924,935 in administrative costs (for 40 schools) to almost $4,000,000.
   Because of the inability of many legislators to do simple math, we will not solve the teacher pay problem with worthless bills (good for nothing, except starting a fire). Oklahomans sincerely hope that our "challenged" math geniuses at the capitol (I couldn't resist one last insult, albeit true) finds a way to give teachers a much-needed pay increase. We'll soon know for sure.