STAFF REPORT
Texas Governor Rick Perry angered many educators last week when he blamed bloated administrative budgets on the financial woes facing state schools.
“The lieutenant governor, the speaker and their colleagues are not going to hire or fire one teacher, as best as I can tell,” Perry said.
Hays CISD Superintendent Jeremy Lyon disagrees.
“He’s absolutely wrong,” Lyon countered. “The reason that we’re in this mess is because of a flawed funding formula and a recession that has not yielded the revenue expectations that it was supposed to yield. It’s just not a matter of pointing fingers, it’s a matter of coming up with solutions to protect future generations of Texans.”
Overall, Hays CISD spent $2.78 million on administrative costs in the 2008-09 school year, representing 2.5 percent of all funds and 2.9 percent of the district’s general fund, for an average of $201 per student. That’s well below the state average of $266 per student, and it’s shrunk in the last decade as the student body has grown. In the 2001-02 school year, Hays spent $295 per student on administrative costs.
Lyon’s annual salary of $179,900 amounts to $12 for each of the district’s 15,325 students. His pay per student is the sixth lowest of the 30 major central Texas school districts, and about the 70th lowest in more than 1,100 districts across the state.
