State lawmakers on Monday moved to eliminate the cap on school superintendent salaries in New Jersey and undo one of former Gov. Chris Christie’s most controversial education policies.

The state Assembly Education Committee approved the bill (A3775) unanimously on Monday, saying the $191,584 cap on superintendent compensation has caused executives to flee New Jersey in search of higher pay and has harmed schools.

The Democratic-controlled state Legislature began the process of rolling back the salary limit shortly after Republican Christie left office in January 2017 and was succeeded by Democrat Phil Murphy, with a vote in the Senate.

If passed by the full Legislature and signed by the governor, the bill would bar the state Department of Education from setting maximum salaries for superintendents.

Christie in 2011 implemented what was then a $175,000 cap, citing high salaries and generous perks in superintendent contracts. Several high-profile superintendents, as a result, resigned rather than accept a pay cut or took jobs in Pennsylvania or New York. And some districts were left with a revolving door of interim superintendents before finding a qualified long-term replacement.

Christie’s administration raised the maximum base pay to $191,584 in 2017 with incentives to earn more if school chiefs stay in the same district.

The average salary for New Jersey school superintendents was $155,631 in the 2017-18 school year, according to an NJ Advance Media analysis of state data. More than 30 collected more than $200,000 in base pay, despite the salary cap. The law includes exemptions for charter schools, districts with career and technical schools, schools for special education students and districts with more than 10,000 students.

Superintendents who are subject to the cap are also eligible for extra pay if they have a high school in their district, stay in the same district for multiple contracts or meet goals for merit pay.

But lawmakers said Monday that districts struggle to recruit and retain superintendents who pursue higher-paying posts elsewhere.

Superintendents are leaving New Jersey and receiving $40,000 to $80,000 raises, said Assemblyman Ralph Caputo, D-Essex.

Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso, R-Monmouth, noted that even without the cap local district spending is still hemmed in by a 2 percent spending cap.

“On the face it looks like we might not be looking to protect the taxpayer, but actually we are," she said, “because in my own district, you have interim superintendents that get paid a lot of money a day, so it in fact is not cost effective any more.”

“Maybe at the time it was the right thing to do to try to save the taxpayers money, but in this current climate we need to do something different, and this is it," she said.

A Rutgers-Camden study of school spending data from 2004 to 2014 found a 0.5 percent reduction in total spending and 1.4 percent decrease in administrative costs after the installation of the compensation cap. The professor, Michael Hayes, also found superintendents were about 16 percent more likely to leave.

Separately, the New Jersey School Board’s Association reported that nearly 100 superintendents who resigned by February 2014 cited the salary cap as a factor.

Now, both houses of the Legislature — the state Senate and Assembly — have to pass the bill before Murphy can decide whether to sign it law or veto it.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter@samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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