NEW YORK (June 23) -- 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.
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.
"It is extremely difficult to fire a tenured teacher because of the protections afforded to them in their contract," spokeswoman Ann Forte said.
City officials said that they make teachers report to a rubber room instead of sending them home because the union contract requires that they be allowed to continue in their jobs in some fashion while their cases are being heard. The contract does not permit them to be given other work.
Teachers awaiting disciplinary hearings around the nation typically are sent home, with or without pay, Karen Horwitz, a former Chicago-area teacher who founded the National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse. Some districts find non-classroom work — office duties, for example — for teachers accused of misconduct.
Once their hearings are over, they are either sent back to the classroom or fired. But because their cases are heard by 23 arbitrators who work only five days a month, stints of two or three years in a rubber room are common, and some teachers have been there for five or six.
This is typical of what is wrong with our educational system in the United States. Yes, some of these people may have been accused unfairly, but wasting MILLIONS to let them sit around and pick their backsides for years while being paid is inexcusable!
To start with, these issues need to be addressed and resolved within six weeks, so the arbitrators should work more than five days a month. Also, there is absolutely NO REASON why these teachers shouldn't be reassigned those six weeks, except it's how their union keeps them from doing other work. And for those six weeks, they should get half-pay. If they are found innocent, they get the other half.
Education isn't about protecting the teachers, it's about protecting and educating the students! I can't help but wonder how much money NATIONWIDE is wasted on such idiocy!!!
~*~*~Krystal~*~*~
4 comments:
What else is new.
Tenure, it's a wonderful thing...
That's outrageous, to be sure, but do you know how many UAW workers are sitting at home twiddling their thumbs while collecting 70% of their salary, and have been doing this for well over 20 years?
Here's a hint. Thousands. And that number doesn't include the retirees who retire with full benefits, and hefty pensions. Until they die. They can retire at 62 and still get those benefits, too.
That's right. I met one of them personally several years ago. He was laid off from General Motors some 20 years before, and had been living on 70% of his income every week for all that time, ostensibly, until he was finally called back to work.
If he had started a new job, he would have lost his unemployment income which was paid by the union.
It was and is unlikely that he would have found a job that would have paid him even half as much for doing something as the union would pay him to do nothing.
And some wonder why cars are so expensive.
Mark, I'd heard about that. It's one of the reasons I am extremely unhappy that we bailed out the auto industry. The reason they can't stay in business isn't because of CEO private jets, it's because of idiotic UAW.
And in reality, it was the UAW we bailed out.
There was a time for unions. That time is far over!!!
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