Pittsburgh schools boost salaries, roster despite talk of consolidation

Even as Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) has been discussing school closures and other cost-cutting measures, it ended the 2025 school year with a bigger roster and increased payroll spending, according to reports.

“District administrators spent the year focused on an effort to rightsize the district’s offerings and reduce the roster by around 150,” wrote Pittsburgh’s Public Source, noting the end result actually increased salaries and overtime by 4.4% to a total of $306 million.

“The plan to close 12 schools has not passed and payroll continued to rise.”

Almost half, or 42%, of the district’s $729 million budget goes to salaries and benefits, according to the report. The district hired 4,478 employees in 2025, up from 4,420 the previous year.

“Superintendent Wayne Walters continues to be the highest-paid employee in 2025, earning $298,686 in salary,” the outlet noted. “The amount is almost double that of other top earners, which include several employees in administrative departments.”

The report also found the number of employees earning more than $100,000 in 2025 grew to 1,554 – compared to 1,419 the previous year.

“In previous years, some maintenance workers were among the highest-paid employees due to substantial overtime and supplemental pay. This year, a general foreman in maintenance administration received the highest overtime pay at $65,386, bringing their total earnings to $162,956.”

‘Government-run monopolies’

Public-school critics such as Chris Talgo, the Heartland Institute’s editorial director, argue such numbers highlight the administrative bloat threatening overall educational quality.

“The students can’t read, and even that doesn’t stop school employees from leading them in walk-outs from their classes to protest whatever is the cause du jour,” the former public-school teacher writes.

“Since 2019, the total number of public school staff has risen from 6.5 million to 6.8 million, but teachers fill less than half of all open staff positions. And they are now outnumbered by non-teachers on staff — 3.6 million to 3.2 million.”

Part of the reason stems from the way schools operate as “government-run monopolies, often steered by teachers’ unions and other leftist political groups,” according to Talgo.

“As with any badly run corporate bureaucracy, there was always some ‘new plan’ in place that required more red tape. All of this took precious time away from a teacher’s number one priority: instructional preparation time.”

Meanwhile, the PPS district continues at half capacity – serving about 20,000 students across facilities designed to host 40,000, according to 2025 reports.