Mike Mecca 201-852-1067                                                                Mike Ramaglia 201-697-7699      Rumana  Is Weak on Education Cost Issues    PASSAIC COUNTY-- GOP Strong had praise for a federal judge who ruled recently that New Jersey’s effort to limit salaries for school administrators is “perfectly legitimate.”    Recent revelations about school administrator pay, benefit and retirement packages have sparked outrage by taxpayers who see their money wasted on needless, overblown bureaucracy.   GOP Strong, a conservative Republican political action group says school salaries for superintendents, administrators and principles are way out of hand and need to be reined it.    “In this economy – in any economy – it is impossible to justify the salaries and layers of bureaucracy at some school districts,” said Michael Ramaglia, co chairman of GOP Strong.  “It’s time that Trenton representative did something about this waste of money that doesn’t help a single child,” he added.    He pointed out that the Passaic County Technical High School in Wayne has   23 administrators, including three assistant principles. Eighteen of the 23 administrators make more than $100,000. The superintendent makes just under $200,000, the principal makes $160,000, and the business administrator earns $150,000. One vice principal is paid over $130,000 a year and two others make $113,000.   It’s no wonder, says Ramaglia, that it costs $20,297 to educate a single student at the Passaic County Technical High School.    “The state needs to take a hard line with education costs and make sure more money goes to the children, not to bureaucrats and buildings,” said Ramaglia.. A media web site on school administration salaries statewide lists 56 administrators for Paterson. Of that number nine make more than $145,000 --- including $217,000 for the state appointed superintendent of schools – and 26 administrators make more than $100,000.   According to figures available from the state Education Department’s web site, in the 2006-20078 school year, it cost just under $17,000 to educate one student in Paterson, but more than $9,600 of that cost goes to salaries and benefits for administrators and classroom teachers and aides.    “The problem with education in New Jersey it that it costs a fortune and most of the money isn’t reaching the students,” said GOP C-chair Robert Fass of Wayne.  In Paterson’s case, he said, the salaries are especially troubling because most of the cost is paid by taxpayers who do not live in the city. Paterson receives $436 million a year in state school aid.     Fass said state Republican leaders need to be more forceful in exposing the waste in the education bureaucracy.  “Where are our Trenton leaders on school costs? They talk about consolidating school districts, and closing neighborhood schools, when they should be talking about cutting the overpaid, overblown bureaucracy. "As a businessman, I don’t see any business sense in the way most school districts are being operated and that is very disturbing,” added Fass a Wayne resident and partner in a corporate staffing firm. Fass noted that former Wayne mayor and current state Assemblyman Scott Rumana, a member of the Assembly education committee has done little to expose administration salaries.    GOP Strong Co chair Ann Marie Pusterla, a Wayne resident, said she too is disappointed in Rumana’s lack of leadership on education issues.  “Is he on the education committee to protect our neighborhood schools from closing, or is he there to make contact with the school administrators and the leaders of the teachers’ union?”