"Education Is the Silver Bullet"

When education is the topic of discussion, I am often reminded of Sam Seaborn's speech about education in Season 1, Episode 18, of The West Wing. The speech begins, "Education is the silver bullet," and among the recommendations he makes about education is this: "Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries." You can hear the whole speech here. The episode aired twenty-five years ago, in April 2000.

I was reminded of the speech yesterday when I received this press release from the Empire Center for Public Policy.

Educators Receiving $200k+ Doubles in Five Years

The number of school district employees receiving a total compensation or more than $200,000 has more than doubled since 2019, according to new salary data posted today at SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center's transparency website. The public educator pay data are based on Fiscal Year 2023-24 salary information reported to New York State Teachers' Retirement System (NYSTRS), which covers 239,254 public school teachers and administrators employed outside New York City. The data posted, also includes pay records for 139,121 district employees, who are members of the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS).

A total of 75,056 school district employees received six figure compensation--representing nearly one-third (31.3%) of NYSTRS educators. Out of these, 81 educators received more than $300,000, and 1,688 received more than $200,000. The majority (76 percent) of those employs who received six-figure compensation were employed in downstate districts, including 33,834 on Long Island and 18,622 in Westchester, Orange, and Rockland counties. . . .

The average for full-time employees--defined as any employee paid more than the annualized lowest statewide minimum wage--during the 2023-2024 school year was $94,732. Full-time employees on Long Island and in the Mid-Hudson region earned the highest average pay at $116,066 and $110,830 respectively. Further upstate, the Western New York Region was the highest paying region ($81,891); the lowest paying region was the North Country ($71,127).

Full-time NYSTRS members in 202 school districts averaged more than $100,000 in pay--the highest being Scarsdale Union Free School District ($149,705), where nearly 90 percent of its 530 educators received over $100,000.

Contracts between school districts and their teachers and superintendents, detailing compensation and other terms and conditions of employments, are also available on SeeThroughNY. The Empire Center earlier published the median pay for teachers in New York during the school year 2023-24.

If you click on the last link provided in the press release, you will find a report that includes this statement:

The latest teacher pay data highlights New York's increasingly bloated school district spending, which is the highest in the nation. However, test scores have remained consistently mediocre, with New York's National Assessment Educational Progress (NAEP) math and reading scores trailing behind those of Mississippi, Kentucky, and Alabama.

The most recent SeeThroughNY information about salaries in the Hudson City School District can be found here. Sixty-three educators in the district have six-figure incomes, but it is likely that only the salary and benefits of the superintendent, Dr. Juliette Pennyman, exceed $200,000. Unfortunately, Pennyman's contract is not yet available on SeeThroughNY.

  

I share all this to show that the Hudson City School District, with its bloated budget and poor academic results, is not unique or even mildly unusual in the State of New York, but also to suggest that, when it comes to education, throwing money at the problem does not solve it. We may need, in the words of Sam Seaborn, "gigantic, monumental changes" to improve outcomes for students in the Hudson City School District, but six-figure salaries alone don't seem to be working.

COPYRIGHT 2025 CAROLE OSTERINK