Easy Pickings.

• Author: HEANEY, JAMES
• Position: Effects of teacher tenure

Few public officials are better paid--or less accountable--than school administrators

Most Buffalo school administrators are former teachers who have learned that there is good money to be made running a poor district. School officials accounted for 81 of the city's 100 highest paid administrators in 1996-97.

How much better paid are school administrators than their city government counterparts? Seventy-five made more in 1996-97 than Mayor Anthony Masiello, who ranked 91st overall among city administrators. The schools' top budget official earned nearly $24,000 more than the mayor's chief number cruncher. Seventeen principals made more than the police commissioner, including four who pulled down more than $100,000. Even the School Board's secretary made more than most of the city government's top administrators; Alvina Staley earned $63,189, much of it in overtime, and her pay topped those of the commissioners of parks, streets, and community development.

Sixty-five percent of the administrators in the city who made over $65,000 work for the schools. In 1996-97, 191 school administrators were paid more than $65,000, including 40 who earned more than $80,000. Superintendent James Harris topped the list: His $135,000 salary makes him the city's highest paid public official. Benefits for city school administrators are vastly superior to those of the mayor's management staff. School administrators who retired the summer of 1996, for example, walked away with an average of $49,940 in early retirement incentives and compensation for unused sick time; department heads in the city get nothing when they leave.

While the city high school principals' pay -- $94,486--is higher than those in the suburbs, most of their students' academic performance is not. Most city high schools are at the bottom of the achievement ladder among schools. Student performance is not tied to principals' pay.

The district's administrators rank among the best paid managers in city government--and the least accountable. They're rarely evaluated. And forget about demotions or dismissals. All but a handful have what amounts to lifetime job security. Even assistant superintendents are members of a union and expected to supervise and, if necessary, discipline fellow members of their union.

The situation in Buffalo is worse than in many other districts, but in many ways it typifies the entrenched bureaucrats found in school systems throughout the nation. "I think the public...