Who has the highest salaries in Georgia schools and colleges
During debates on teacher pay and retirement benefits at the state Capitol each year, one of the most repeated lines is that educators don't get into the profession for the money.
They get into it because they love what they do, they say. And the money bit is certainly true for a vast majority of k-12 teachers and many college professors. The average pay for teachers in Georgia is about $55,000, and the starting salary out of college is about $34,000.
But there is good money for those at the very top of the education pay scale, the big-city school superintendents, top university administrators and professors who are leaders in lucrative fields, according to figures from the state’s salary website, Open Georgia.
For fiscal 2018, which ended June 30 of last year, the highest paid person in state government, k-12 schools and the University System of Georgia was University of Georgia football coach Kirby Smart, who Open Georgia listed as earning $6.425 million. That such coaches at nationally renowned schools make big money isn’t surprising.
Below are some of the top salaries for non-athletics department coaches and staff in fiscal 2018, according to Open Georgia.
Top superintendents pay
| Name | District | Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Alvin Wilbanks | Gwinnett County | $569,375 |
| Meria Carstarphen | Atlanta City | $461,918 |
| Morcease Jamar Beasley | Clayton County | $387,344 |
| Jeffrey Rose | Fulton County | $367,153 |
| Robert Green | DeKalb County | $334,200 |
| Curtis Jones | Bibb County | $324,000 |
| Jeffrey Byron Bearden | Forsyth County | $311,542 |
| Gene Hamby | Buford City | $308,000 |
| John Jackson | Floyd County | $294,687 |
| Marie Levett | Savannah-Chatham County | $275,542 |
University presidents
| Name | College | Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Brooks Allen Keel | Augusta University | $872,786 |
| George Peterson | Georgia Tech | $871,771 |
| Jere Morehead | University of Georgia | $860,843 |
| Mark Becker | Georgia State | $594,951 |
| Jaimie Hebert | Georgia Southern | $441,131 |
| William Kenneth Harmon | Kennesaw State | $365,290 |
| Kyle Marrero | West Georgia | $348,559 |
| Richard Carvajal | Valdosta State | $341,340 |
| Chris Markwood | Columbus State | $337,616 |
| Paul Anthony Jones | Fort Valley State | $325,068 |
Other faculty and staffThis is a sample of what other notable university employees make and not a list of the highest paid workers.
| Name | Title | School | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vinayak Kamath | Professor and chief of cardiothoracic surgery | Augusta University | $949,019 |
| Cargill Herley Alleyne | Marshall Allen Distinguished Chair in neurosurgery | Augusta University | $934,404 |
| Viswanathan Kumar | Regents professor in marketing | Georgia State | $886,964 |
| William Jeffrey Rosenblum | Professor, Director of Orthopaedic Trauma | Augusta University | $767,254 |
| Rafael Bras | Provost | Georgia Tech | $635,266 |
| Maryam Alavi | Dean of business school | Georgia Tech | $587,458 |
| Sudheer Chava | Director of the quantitative and computational finance program | Georgia Tech | $518,276 |
| Arun Rai | Chairman of IT-enabled supply chains and process innovation in the business school | Georgia State | $512,182 |
| Nathan Bennett | Associate Dean for program innovation and professor in the school of business | Georgia State | $490,909 |
| Pamela Whitten | Senior vice president for academic affairs, provost | University of Georgia | $429,200 |
About the Author
James Salzer has covered state government and politics in Georgia since 1990. He previously covered politics and government in Texas and Florida. He specializes in government finance, budgets, taxes, campaign finance, ethics and legislative history
