Salary attracts talent, plain and simple. CEO and executives of non-profit hospitals make large 7 figure salaries. Why should a superintentent be any different? People like to shake their fists at something they see as a high salary. Seriously, the superintendents salary is such a small, insignificant % of the district budget...it's not even part the problem. If a shcool district lowers the pay they are willing to offer, they can expect the more talented applicants to look elsewhere. It's just how it is. In the media there has been talk of limiting CEO salaries. If that happened (it won't), talented CEO's would look for more lucritive jobs outside the US and the less talented ones would remain in the US. It would cause more problems that is solves.