Super-sized Salaries
What to know: Newly-published data reveals that Texas’ highest paid superintendent received nearly $550,000 in the 2023-24 school year, excluding benefits. Of the top 10 highest paid superintendents, 8 administrators raked in more than the President of the United States ($400,000).
The TPPF take: Public school superintendents are getting rich from their time serving the community.
“No one should get rich from public service. And yet, a small number of education elites are reaping a windfall at taxpayer expense,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “We need commonsense public sector compensation reform next session to protect taxpayers and stop the abuse.”
For more on superintendents’ salaries, click here.
Missile Defense
What to know: Iran fired more than 320 warheads at Israel on Saturday.
The TPPF take: President Joe Biden has always opposed missile defense systems. But those systems are what are defending Israel.
“Iran’s triple threat attack was defeated by fighter jets, Israel’s short-range Iron Dome system, David’s Sling, a kinetic hit-to-kill interceptor system with a range out to 186 miles away, and Israel’s Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, developed with the United States beginning in the late 1980s,” says TPPF’s Chuck DeVore. “The U.S. Navy also fired anti-ballistic missile rockets from warships nearby. But had Biden had his way in 1987, Israel wouldn’t have had the sophisticated and highly effective missile defense system.”
For more on Israel and missile defense systems, click here.
It’s a Start
What to know: The University of Texas has confirmed that it laid off about 60 workers who had previously been in “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) roles at the university.
The TPPF take: Texas is holding public universities accountable on DEI.
“DEI advocates have been working for more than a decade to re-segregate university campuses in Texas and across the country so ‘victims’ aren’t required to interact with ‘oppressors’ in classes and activities,” says TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester. “These frantic administrators who are clinging to DEI seem unaware that the biggest indictment against it is that it doesn’t work.”