Governor Christie's inconsistent policy on salary caps lets charters use public funds to pay high salaries.

How is it fair that charter schools are exempt from Governor Christie's cap on superintendent salaries? If he truly wants to walk the walk and really believes that no one who runs a school district should make more than the governor, then how does he justify the exemption for charter schools? If he truly believes that what he calls high salaries are a misuse of public funds, how are charter schools -- also funded by public money -- allowed to pay their leaders more than the governor?

According to the story in today's Bergen Record:

The director of a Teaneck charter school with about 300 students was paid more than $200,000 last year. In Englewood, the head of an even smaller charter school, with 200 students, earned $152,000 in public money for working part time.

Governor Christie has moved to cap the salaries of superintendents at much larger traditional public school districts, but has proposed no such ceiling on tax-supported charters.

To some, the exemption shows how charters — publicly funded but independently operated — are given a pass when it comes to state regulations meant to ensure fiscal accountability.

"It's patently inequitable," said Bruce Baker, a Rutgers professor who has studied charter school financing.

Read the rest of the article here.

Only in New Jersey...