Oklahoman: High Superintendent Salaries Deserve Second Look, Debate
Pay of Oklahoma school superintendents is an issue that merits scrutiny
By The Oklahoman Editorial Board
STATE Reps. Todd Thomsen and Lee Denney are outraged that a school superintendent in Oklahoma is earning a very healthy salary. To which we respond: They’re just now noticing this?
Thomsen, R-Ada, and Denney, R-Cushing, note that John Cox, superintendent of the Peggs district in Cherokee County, is paid $141,678. The state average for superintendents is $76,424, based on figures from the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability. Apparently, Oklahomans are supposed to think it coincidental that these GOP lawmakers became concerned about superintendent pay only weeks before the election for state schools superintendent. Cox is the Democratic nominee in that race.
In a release criticizing Cox’s salary, Thomsen and Denney say they “both represent districts with rural schools” and that rural schools “are the real victims” when other administrators in other districts are overpaid. Yet the Oklahoma Department of Education reports that the superintendents in the two lawmakers’ hometowns received $121,597 (Ada) and $101,568 (Cushing) in total compensation. That’s far above the state average that the two lawmakers stressed to criticize Cox’s pay. Are Thomsen and Denney equally outraged about those salaries’ alleged harm to rural schools?
The timing of Thomsen’s and Denney’s school finance concern is transparently partisan. This doesn’t mean the superintendent pay issue is without merit. Cox appears to have feathered his own nest more than many counterparts. He heads a K-8 school district, reportedly with only 13 teachers and 254 students.