The Washington Post s respected education columnist Jay Matthews wants to double principals salaries. There s no doubt that this proposal is going to be received with skepticism in these times of tight budgets, but Matthews insists. The columnist says that despite visiting hundreds of schools in the last 20 years, he s never been to a bad school ( those sour places where kids are just tolerated and goals never set ) that was run by a good principal. Besides, since principals are always few in number in any district, his plan is not going to break the bank. Furthermore, the principals chief job hiring excellent teachers is one that would pay immediate dividends. Better-paid principals could be granted both increased accountability and discretion, whereby the principal would be responsible for raising achievement school-wide and have the increased ability to dismiss consistently failing teachers in order to accomplish that goal. Matthews knows his proposal is unlikely to be adopted, but it makes his point: better principals are worth the money.