Few would likely describe him as hard up for cash, but Georgia’s state school superintendent is poorly paid relative to his peers across the country, according to a new analysis by a national education news outlet.
Education Week, a well-known publication in the nation's capital, surveyed pay in the 50 states and the District of Columbia and ranked Georgia 41st, sandwiched between the Dakotas (South pays a few thousand more than North).
The current occupant of the elected superintendent’s office in Georgia, Richard Woods, is paid $123,700, the news outlet reports, lower than the national average of $174,000 and well behind Mississippi, where incumbent Carey Wright is the highest paid state superintendent in the nation at $300,000.
Woods, who runs the Georgia Department of Education and its $9 billion budget, can at least be thankful that he's not in charge of education in Arizona, the lowest paying state, where Diane Douglas earns $85,000, or the next lowest-paying state, South Carolina, at $92,000.
Woods still earns far more than the highest paid teacher who is paid by the latest state salary schedule. It tops out around $80,000 for a teacher with two decades experience and the maximum education. Local school districts may enhance pay, but starting teacher pay on the state schedule is just above $30,000.
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