The Agenda

College-president raises? Arne Duncan fires off an email Schools get squeezed while leaders get paid more. This isn’t the education deal we should be offering. By Arne Duncan

Editor's note: Yesterday morning an email landed in the inbox of Politico PRO education reporter Maggie Severns from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, responding to her morning newsletter. We asked him to adapt it for publication. The headlines in my morning education newsletter yesterday were jarring: "STATE FUNDING LACKING IN EQUITY," said the first, followed immediately by "PAY RAISE FOR PUBLIC COLLEGE PRESIDENTS." The funding story was a set of reports showing that state budget crunches aren't hitting all public schools equally. A majority of states still haven't restored their school funding to pre-recession levels. And as schools face the squeeze, states often cut their education budgetsin ways that shortchange poor communities, minority students, low-income families. and those with special needs. For those of us in the education field, it’s no surprise when reports reveal this truth. But even if those reports aren’t shocking, there’s an especially jarring contrast with other reports that show, even as state budgets are squeezing resources for public K-12 schools, states are raising pay for public college presidents. These are individuals who, in many instances, already are well compensated for their work. The median salary for public-college presidents was more than $400,000, and two earned more than $1 million. States paid 7 percent more to their college presidents in 2014 than in 2013, sometimes with extensive benefits packages and large severance deals. Many presidents remain in highly paid jobs at the college for years afterward.

I don’t begrudge the leaders of our public colleges and universities for doing well. But our public school students should be doing well, too—better, in fact, than the constraints of funding inequities allow in order to be competitive in today’s global economy. Taken together, these reports highlight a stark threat to the fundamental promise that if you work hard, you’ll have the opportunity to fulfill your greatest potential and go as far as your dreams and determination will take you. It just doesn’t make sense to ask the most vulnerable students—the ones who most need our support—to bear the burden of budget cuts while devoting more and more money to some of the highest paid public officials in the country. It’s a reminder that as Congress considers the future of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the nation’s K-12 education law, they have a responsibility to protect the kids who most need protection. It’s also a reminder that even as states face difficult funding choices, budgets are a reflection of our priorities. States owe it to our kids and our nation’s economic future to make choices that put students—not adult interests or political expediency—first. Authors: Arne Duncan http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/06/memo-to-states-watch-who-you-spend-your-money-on-000081