Anonymous
11/28/2025 09:00
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think there is a lot of misinformation in private schools. They charge a lot of money, you are surrounded by wealthy families, but the educational outcomes are not clearly better than in public schools in Bethesda or McLean.
Clearly better outcomes at a public school in Annandale, though.
And in NYC the best schools are public schools as well.
Much more coddling happens in private schools. If you can do well in a public school, why go private unless you don’t like poor or middle income people?
DP. Because there are serious problems in some of the public schools. I know no one likes to hear this but it's true.
Anonymous
11/28/2025 07:24
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think there is a lot of misinformation in private schools. They charge a lot of money, you are surrounded by wealthy families, but the educational outcomes are not clearly better than in public schools in Bethesda or McLean.
Clearly better outcomes at a public school in Annandale, though.
And in NYC the best schools are public schools as well.
Much more coddling happens in private schools. If you can do well in a public school, why go private unless you don’t like poor or middle income people?
Anonymous
11/28/2025 07:22
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:I think there is a lot of misinformation in private schools. They charge a lot of money, you are surrounded by wealthy families, but the educational outcomes are not clearly better than in public schools in Bethesda or McLean.
Clearly better outcomes at a public school in Annandale, though.
And in NYC the best schools are public schools as well.
Anonymous
11/27/2025 16:06
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Another way of looking at this is that it requires the tuition of about 10-15 students to pay for the head's salary. I think head salaries should be capped at a maximum of something like $500k. And then yearly bonuses could be awarded based on metrics achieved (or not awarded in the event of poor performance).
That's great how did you come up with that 500k number.
Just stick your finger to the wind and spit out a number that "feels good?"
Right? Because that’s how capitalism works. One know it all on an anonymous chat board sets the prices and the wages.😆
Anonymous
11/27/2025 15:55
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Another way of looking at this is that it requires the tuition of about 10-15 students to pay for the head's salary. I think head salaries should be capped at a maximum of something like $500k. And then yearly bonuses could be awarded based on metrics achieved (or not awarded in the event of poor performance).
That's great how did you come up with that 500k number.
Just stick your finger to the wind and spit out a number that "feels good?"
Anonymous
11/27/2025 15:54
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Several reasons that schools don't really invest in teachers:
1) the better independent schools lead to strong college outcomes regardless; colleges want kids who can pay full freight and do work
2) there are always some exceptional teachers at the best independents, regardless of the salaries, so keeping more of them in any school doesn't really matter
3) independent school teachers are single year contract at will employees and schools put soft pressure on not to discuss salaries
4) parents for the most part care more about college matriculation than the actual quality of teaching, and parents are the customers
5) admin salary bloat; more admin positions and they're getting paid more
So they're like public schools?
Some of the challenges are similar.
Public school teachers often draw better salaries on account of organized labor helping to set pricing even in areas that don't have unions.
Private school teachers appreciate some smaller headaches and more autonomy.
Teachers, in both cases, are often undervalued in comparison to administrators, but so it goes.
Anonymous
11/27/2025 15:33
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Several reasons that schools don't really invest in teachers:
1) the better independent schools lead to strong college outcomes regardless; colleges want kids who can pay full freight and do work
2) there are always some exceptional teachers at the best independents, regardless of the salaries, so keeping more of them in any school doesn't really matter
3) independent school teachers are single year contract at will employees and schools put soft pressure on not to discuss salaries
4) parents for the most part care more about college matriculation than the actual quality of teaching, and parents are the customers
5) admin salary bloat; more admin positions and they're getting paid more
So they're like public schools?
Anonymous
11/27/2025 15:25
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:HoS salaries are in line with all other major executive positions in the US economy. Ballooning while most workers stagnate.
Teachers and teaching are woefully undervalued in the US, and it will only get worse with the AI era.
Or it goes the other way and teaching becomes a higher skill profession and the pay increases.
Anonymous
11/27/2025 14:22
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Several reasons that schools don't really invest in teachers:
1) the better independent schools lead to strong college outcomes regardless; colleges want kids who can pay full freight and do work
2) there are always some exceptional teachers at the best independents, regardless of the salaries, so keeping more of them in any school doesn't really matter
3) independent school teachers are single year contract at will employees and schools put soft pressure on not to discuss salaries
4) parents for the most part care more about college matriculation than the actual quality of teaching, and parents are the customers
5) admin salary bloat; more admin positions and they're getting paid more
1) the better independent schools lead to strong college outcomes regardless; colleges want kids who can pay full freight and do work
2) there are always some exceptional teachers at the best independents, regardless of the salaries, so keeping more of them in any school doesn't really matter
3) independent school teachers are single year contract at will employees and schools put soft pressure on not to discuss salaries
4) parents for the most part care more about college matriculation than the actual quality of teaching, and parents are the customers
5) admin salary bloat; more admin positions and they're getting paid more
Anonymous
11/27/2025 14:16
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I don’t think this is true. There is a massive teacher shortage nationally—people are leaving the profession in droves, and the consensus is that many veteran teachers would not recommend the profession to college graduates. The state of American education across many types of schooling is in deep crisis.
People keep saying this. I’ll believe it when salaries start to go up. But there’s still not exactly a bidding war right now.
Salaries don’t go up because people are comfortable replacing burned out teachers with teachers who will soon burn out.
There are plenty of people willing to try teaching for a year or two. But getting people to stay for low pay and little respect? That’s much harder.
And let’s be honest: people don’t pick a school because of the HOS. They pick a school because of what teachers contribute: strong instruction, supportive classrooms. The HOS can be gone for a month and we won’t notice. But have teachers take off and the school falls apart.
They deserve tons more pay.
At least in the private school space the market should sort this out, if parents actually have high educational standards. Why wouldn’t area privates be bidding up the best teachers? It’s not like everyone doesn’t know who they are.
Anonymous
11/27/2025 11:17
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I don’t think this is true. There is a massive teacher shortage nationally—people are leaving the profession in droves, and the consensus is that many veteran teachers would not recommend the profession to college graduates. The state of American education across many types of schooling is in deep crisis.
Wages are very much driven by gender composition. As more women join a field, such as medicine, wages seem to go down. Not saying it’s right.
I'm generalizing but...
Women prefer different tradeoffs.
They don't compete on who can work the longest hours; they want to do their work and get home to where the important part of their life happens.
They don't necessarily want more money and are not as comfortable arguing for tippy top pay, they want more flexibility and are very comfortable arguing for that.
That's largely driven by gender roles but not entirely.
Anonymous
11/27/2025 11:13
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:HOS pay — it’s not really about fairness. Try paying less and see what you get.
On the flip side, schools have no problems finding teachers at low salaries. Why?
I’m convinced a lot of this is that idealistic people who become teachers, almost by definition, don’t understand the financial tradeoffs. (On the flip side, investment bankers, again almost by definition, certainly do.) So there’s an oversupply in teaching, do-good roles that drives prices down.
Obviously private schools teach this implicitly (through social contact mostly) but I really wish public schools would help all kids better understand the financial consequences of different career paths.
It’s just like the housing debate. Housing is expensive because everyone wants to live in the city (demand) and there are too few houses. Teacher pay is cr*p because too many people go into teaching. It’s not the Man.
Or it's because a private school teacher doesn't need teaching credentials.
Go to the teacher's parking lot and you will see busted old beaters and BMWs. The children of wealthy families are willing to work at their alma mater for next to nothing.
Anonymous
11/27/2025 11:11
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I don’t think this is true. There is a massive teacher shortage nationally—people are leaving the profession in droves, and the consensus is that many veteran teachers would not recommend the profession to college graduates. The state of American education across many types of schooling is in deep crisis.
People keep saying this. I’ll believe it when salaries start to go up. But there’s still not exactly a bidding war right now.
Salaries don’t go up because people are comfortable replacing burned out teachers with teachers who will soon burn out.
There are plenty of people willing to try teaching for a year or two. But getting people to stay for low pay and little respect? That’s much harder.
And let’s be honest: people don’t pick a school because of the HOS. They pick a school because of what teachers contribute: strong instruction, supportive classrooms. The HOS can be gone for a month and we won’t notice. But have teachers take off and the school falls apart.
They deserve tons more pay.
Anonymous
11/27/2025 10:58
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:Heads of Universities make millions. Heads of large non for profits (Red Cross, United Way, American Cancer Society) make similar numbers. Joel Osteen is worth more than hundred million.
Get over it or don’t. A vow to poverty is not required to run a complicated, multi-faceted entity like a school or charity. If you don’t like it, don’t donate, don’t send your kid to a private school, don’t send your kid to a university.
DP.
The market is the market but comparing the red cross with some DMV private school is wild.
The reason these guys get paid so much isn't the complexity of the institution.
The secondary schools around here have more students and staff than any private school in the area.
They get paid to raise money.
The board members don't want to beg their peers for money for the school so they pay the head of school to do it for them.
If the head of school also has to keep everyone happy and that's asking a lot considering the audience
Anonymous
11/27/2025 10:37
Subject: private school head are paid what?????
Anonymous wrote:You sound clueless. The job market for these roles is what it is. Would you like this school to find someone who will do it for less?
School board member has entered the chat.