The Chronicle of Higher Education has listed on its website many articles about the salaries of college presidents. One actually lists the amount college presidents are making, and let me tell you, these people are pretty well-off. However, I am not sure if I disagree with the hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars these people are making. I have heard over the years from liberals that as far as money goes, America has its priorities all messed up. We are paying actors, professional athletes, and the idiots on the show “Jackass” way too much money for what they do. I enjoy watching football and watching people staple their butt cheeks together, but do these men really need to be paid millions of dollars? I know many people, not just liberals, think that people in the education field are highly underpaid. The people who are being underpaid are not the presidents, though; they are the teachers. Teachers are the ones educating our children for hours during the day; they are in the teachers’ hands, and to ensure that they are safe and well taken care of we should pay the teachers more, not the presidents. By paying them more we could get higher quality in the teachers’ skill, which gives our children a better future.
Now, what I just said is that teachers need to be paid more. However, we are talking about college presidents. In my opinion, I think that these presidents are being overpaid in comparison to the teachers. Yes, the president is keeping the college up and running, making big decisions, etc. … but who is doing the hands-on work, who is really influencing the students? The teachers. The millions of dollars that college presidents make could be and should be distributed among the professors (man does that sound liberal or what!) to make their paychecks more equal to that of the presidents. I do feel that presidents should be paid well; they do run the whole school. However, I feel that in comparison to the teachers, who probably don’t make over five figures a year, the presidents, in some cases, are being vastly overpaid. If we want real higher education, we need to start paying the teachers what they truly deserve, and if that means taking money from the president’s paycheck, especially if they are making over $1 million a year, then so be it.
Point-counterpoint: Collegiate Salaries
