ALBANY, N.Y. (February 1, 2025) — Public education advocacy organization the Alliance for Quality Education issued the following statement in response to recent news regarding last year’s increase in compensation received by State Education Commissioner Dr. Betty Rosa:
“There are many highly paid administrators in public education in our State, but this past week the press’s choice to focus on Commissioner Rosa highlights a fundamental issue of fairness and who is deemed worthy of recognition. Commissioner Rosa, a Latina woman, is extremely qualified, and worked her way up from teaching in a classroom to overseeing the education of 2.7 million students as State Commissioner,” said Marina Marcou-O’Malley and Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, Co-Executive Directors, Alliance for Quality Education.
“Commissioner Rosa’s compensation having attracted so much attention while other highly paid administrators have been quietly taking their salaries for years, unquestioned, speaks volumes. They are questioning whether Commissioner Rosa deserves a raise, when they should be asking why she was ever paid any less.The fact that she was making less than district superintendents across the state is not an oversight, it is an inequity that demands attention. It is time to start treating women equally and not keep asking them to prove themselves over and over again.”
