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August 20, 2024We’ll admit it. We were wrong. We were wrong when we reported that former-NJEA Executive Director Ed Richardson was paid $9.3 million over his 13 years as a NJEA exec, or an average of $716,259 a year. It turns out that we mistakenly understated Richardson’s compensation.
It is true that, according to the IRS, Richardson was paid $9.3 million as a NJEA exec. But Richardson was not an NJEA exec for 13 years. He only worked as a NJEA exec from 2008 to 2018, or 11 years. As seen in the chart below, Richardson’s $3,363,926 in compensation for 2019 and 2020 was paid to him as a former executive director. That is, Richardson had retired and was not working as a NJEA exec in 2019 and 2020.
| Year | Position | Amount |
| 2008 | Asst Dir HR | $ 286,470 |
| 2009 | Asst Dir HR | $ 313,423 |
| 2010 | Asst Dir HR | $ 346,312 |
| 2011 | Asst Dir HR | $ 424,674 |
| 2012 | Asst Dir HR | $ 154,109 |
| 2013 | Executive Director | $ 703,927 |
| 2014 | Executive Director | $ 588,025 |
| 2015 | Executive Director | $ 1,212,625 |
| 2016 | Executive Director | $ 473,451 |
| 2017 | Executive Director | $ 347,104 |
| 2018 | Executive Director | $ 1,097,325 |
| 2019 | Former Exec Dir | $ 2,485,357 |
| 2020 | Former Exec Dir | $ 878,569 |
| TOTAL | $ 9,311,371 | |
| AVERAGE | $ 846,488 |
So, the reality is that Richardson was paid $9.3 million over 11 years of service as a NJEA exec, or $846,488 a year. In the words of Tom Moran, editor of the Star-Ledger, that’s “Wall Street” compensation.
All of this was paid for by New Jersey teachers’ highest-in-the-nation dues. For the record, during Richardson’s tenure as a NJEA officer, the average New Jersey teacher made less than 1/10th of Richardson’s $846,488 a year.
These teachers deserve the truth about how their dues were being spent, but NJEA leadership has never told teachers about this outrageous, Wall Street-level compensation. Once again, NJEA leadership has a lot to answer for.