700 NYC Teachers Paid to do Nothing...
I'd love to see the number of teachers nation-wide in both Canada and the US who are paid to do nothing...this can't be just New York...
Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do.
Because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them, the teachers have been banished by the school system to its "rubber rooms" — off-campus office space where they wait months, even years, for their disciplinary hearings.
The 700 or so teachers can practice yoga, work on their novels, paint portraits of their colleagues — pretty much anything but school work. They have summer vacation just like their classroom colleagues and enjoy weekends and holidays through the school year.
"You just basically sit there for eight hours," said Orlando Ramos, who spent seven months in a rubber room, officially known as a temporary reassignment center, in 2004-05. "I saw several near-fights. `This is my seat.' `I've been sitting here for six months.' That sort of thing."
Ramos was an assistant principal in East Harlem when he was accused of lying at a hearing on whether to suspend a student. Ramos denied the allegation but quit before his case was resolved and took a job in California.
Because the teachers collect their full salaries of $70,000 or more, the city Department of Education estimates the practice costs the taxpayers $65 million a year. The department blames union rules.
posted by GayandRight @ 10:12 AM
4 Comments:
It doesn't just pertain to teachers, police, firefighters and almost all unionized government employees.
Reading this article seriously angers me. Thousands of people have lost their jobs in this s**thole economy and yet these "teachers" are paid to do NOTHING. ALL of these 700 teachers need to be given the pink slip pronto. There are more QUALIFIED individuals than these 700 teachers that can DO the job and make a difference in kids lives.
These 700 "teachers" are NOTHING but a WASTE of taxpayers money. I'm surprised there's not a lynch mob organizing in New York. These teachers give others a bad name. They give the whole education/school system concept a bad name. Nobody needs to wonder why education in general is a "joke".
This article is just sickening beyond belief.
I am one of the 700 teachers being referenced. I understand how you might be angry reading about the situation, however you should never base an opinion without researching the facts. While there are some teachers who've been legitimately removed from their schools and should be fired, they are the minority. The majority of us are well-respected, hard-working pedagogues who've been caught up in a not-so-veiled attempt by the DOE to purge the system of senior, higher salaried employees who will not turn a blind eye to the blatantly illegal policies being employed by Bloom/Klein (persistent exploita-
tions of the contract, non-compliance of state-mandated special-ed and other services, etc). In our place they seek to hire younger, lower salaried
"cookie-cutter" teachers who
dare not question administration
policies...It's a perverse situation to be sure, however don't mistake the fact that many of us sitting here doing "nothing" would much prefer to be where we should, in the classroom using our skills garnered over many years to "make a difference in kids' lives," the reason we chose this profession in the first place.
Frustrated Middle School Science teacher
@Anonymous: "The majority of us are well-respected, hard-working pedagogues who've been caught up in a not-so-veiled attempt by the DOE to purge the system of senior, higher salaried employees who will not turn a blind eye to the blatantly illegal policies being employed by Bloom/Klein (persistent exploita-
tions of the contract, non-compliance of state-mandated special-ed and other services, etc). In our place they seek to hire younger, lower salaried
"cookie-cutter" teachers who
dare not question administration
policies..."
Sadly, that sounds ENTIRELY plausible, even likely. I'd bet the DOE encourages reports that you're nothing but irresponsible leeches -- That would serve their purposes well. And the (UNIONIZED) mainstream media would never report your side of the story.
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