By Walter Pryce
This is an opinion column. It reflects the views of the writer. It discusses a report by the Empire Center for Public Policy; the report’s findings and framing are the Empire Center’s, and the recommendations here are the writer’s.
The Empire Center for Public Policy, the fiscal think tank that runs the SeeThroughNY payroll database, published its annual look at school pay on Nov. 10. The statewide report, by analyst Abdullah Ar Rafee, covers 239,288 teachers, principals, superintendents and other educators in districts outside New York City, using payroll reported to the state Teachers’ Retirement System for the year that ended June 30.
Its most useful number for Buffalo is not a salary. It is a ratio. The report says the Buffalo City School District spent $13,810 in educator pay for every student enrolled in 2025-26, the most among the state’s Big Five city districts and well above the $12,345 average for districts outside New York City.
At a moment when Buffalo’s Board of Education is weighing which schools to close, that figure belongs at the center of the public debate.
What the Empire Center found
The think tank’s headline is growth at the top. It counted 114 educators paid more than $300,000, “up from 90 a year earlier,” and 2,328 paid more than $200,000, up 16 percent. Full-time educators averaged $99,652 statewide, up from $97,506.
Its Western New York summary is more modest. The region’s 21,412 full-time educators averaged $87,032, the highest upstate. Depew had the region’s highest district average, $99,475, followed by Niagara Falls at $98,592 and Buffalo at $95,664. Four superintendents in the region were paid more than the governor’s $250,000 salary, and districts here spent $10,660 in educator pay per student, below the statewide figure.
The Empire Center also compares educators with their neighbors. “In every county outside New York City, the median full-time educator was paid more than the median full-time worker living there, by 33 percent in the typical county,” the report says. In Niagara County, it found the median full-time educator earned $91,208, 58 percent more than the median full-time worker living there.
Why it matters in Buffalo now
Buffalo’s district has an annual budget of about $1.2 billion, WBEN reported. Its chief financial officer said Nov. 4 that the current plan to close or reconfigure eight schools could save $18 million a year, and that without closures the district projects a deficit of $90 million to $100 million next year, WIVB reported. The cuts the district outlined for that scenario include nearly 200 staff positions.
Pay is the largest part of any school budget, so the per-student pay figure is a direct measure of what the district is carrying. A high figure can mean higher pay, more educators per student, or both. The report says that statewide, regional differences come mostly from pay rather than staffing. It does not break down Buffalo’s number, and the district should.
The case for the other side
The strongest objection is that these numbers can make ordinary teachers look overpaid when they are not. Buffalo’s average trails Depew and Niagara Falls, and city schools compete with suburban districts for the same teachers. The Empire Center itself notes the figures are unaudited gross pay that can include summer school, extra duty and payouts at retirement, and that they exclude health insurance and pensions. Salaries are set by contracts that school boards approve.
Those cautions are fair, and they argue for more context, not less. Buffalo Teachers Federation President Rich Nigro has called the closure process “a very, very unsteady process” that “keeps shifting,” according to WIVB. A clear accounting of where the money goes would steady it.
What school boards should do
Buffalo’s Board of Education should publish, alongside its final closure plan, a one-page breakdown of educator pay per student: how much reflects salary levels, how much reflects staffing ratios, and how both would change under the plan. Families weighing the loss of a neighborhood school deserve to see the trade-off in dollars.
Suburban boards across Erie and Niagara counties should post their superintendents’ contracts and total compensation, including benefits, on their district websites before budget votes next May. The payroll data is already public on SeeThroughNY, so districts lose nothing by explaining it first.
The Buffalo Teachers Federation and the district should treat the closure plan and staffing as one conversation. Interim Superintendent Ebony Prophet-Bullock has said of the board’s decision, “We do need an answer,” WBEN reported. The answer will be easier to accept if the numbers behind it are on the table.
What you can do
Look up your district on SeeThroughNY, then ask your school board two questions at its next meeting: what does the district spend on educator pay per student, and how will this year’s budget change it? In Buffalo, ask before the board votes on closures. The Chronicle’s earlier call for a written plan and a public vote still stands.
The Empire Center’s report “114 New York Educators Receive $300K+ in Annual Pay” first appeared at empirecenter.org on Nov. 10, 2026.
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