Administrative Spending Outpaces Teacher Salaries, Mich. Study Says

By Catherine Gewertz

In the average Michigan school district, spending rose three times faster on central-administration costs between 1997 and 2000 than it did on teachers' salaries, new data show.

Updated figures released by the Wall Street financial analyst Standard & Poor's show that the amount spent on teachers' salaries rose 5.2 percent between 1997 and 2000, compared with a 15.7 percent increase on central-office administration costs during the same period.

Standard & Poor's, which has been hired by the state of Michigan to provide annual analyses of school data, found the rise in central-office costs notable because it happened during a period...