State with lowest per-pupil spending has highest-paid state superintendent [Former MCPS Special Ed Director]

Former MCPS Director of Special Education Carey Wright in the news. 

JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi Superintendent of Education Carey Wright is the highest paid state schools chief in the country, according to an analysis by Education Week.

With a salary of $300,000, Wright, who was appointed in 2013, ranked first in the trade publication’s review of state superintendent salaries.

Education Week reported on average state superintendents are paid $174,000.

In a state with one of the nation’s lowest per-pupil spending rates, Wright’s salary stands out as somewhat of an outlier.

That might be partly because of an unofficial precedence set by a former state law mandating that the state education chief’s salary be 90% of what the state’s commissioner of higher education makes.

That law was phased out at the time of Wright’s appointment. And state Board of Education members haven't quite kept up with the trend. Commissioner Glenn Boyce makes $358,312.50, meaning Wright’s salary would have to be $322481.25 in order to align with the former statute...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/09/01/state-lowest-per-pupil-spending-has-highest-paid-state-superintendent/625369001/?fbclid=IwAR15Gxle45vq-wfiYv--YdboZSuweV2znD1Nyan_kH1iu32pY5bIm6w_ZCU