700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

[Denmo]

This is maddening no matter how you look at it.

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.

And the reasons they are there are even dumber.

"Most people in that room are depressed," said Jennifer Saunders, a high school teacher who was in a reassignment center from 2005 to 2008. Saunders said she was charged with petty infractions in an effort to get rid of her: "I was charged with having a student sit in my class with a hat on, singing."

Judith Cohen, an art teacher who has been in a rubber room near Madison Square Garden for three years, said she passes the time by painting watercolors of her fellow detainees. "The day just seemed to crawl by until I started painting," Cohen said, adding that others read, play dominoes or sleep. Cohen said she was charged with using abusive language when a girl cut her with scissors.

David Suker, who has been in a Brooklyn reassignment center for three months, said he has used the time to plan summer trips to Alaska, Cape Cod and Costa Rica. Suker said he was falsely accused of throwing a girl's test sign-up form in the garbage during an argument.

Philip Nobile is a journalist who has written for New York Magazine and the Village Voice and is known for his scathing criticism of public figures. A teacher at Brooklyn's Cobble Hill School of American Studies, Nobile was assigned to a rubber room in 2007, "supposedly for pushing a boy while I was breaking up a fight." He contends the school system is retaliating against him for exposing wrongdoing.

700 teachers told to do nothing for months because of a faulty system.

That's 700 teachers that could be teaching at least 100 students a day each.

That's 7000+ possible students who could be receiving a poor education under a substitute or a new-hire, per school semester.

This is absolutely ridiculous.

[American Hero]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

Those sure are some great reasons for getting in trouble.

[Stormy]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

Unbelievable. Imagine the money wasted because of this alone.

[John Mora]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

This got reported by This American Life a while ago.

[Magus]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

It should get reported more!

This is ridiculous.




I wanna get paid for doing nothing.

[Denmo]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

Step 1: Become an NYC teacher.

Step 2: Join the teacher's union.

Step 3: **** off the Principal.

[Caciss]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

This is my dream job!

[Jamos]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

Why break your back to get paid **** when you can do nothing and get paid the same amount? It just makes sense.

[DK]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

Cause that shouldn't be the reason you go into the ****ty field of teaching to begin with?

[Duel]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

Terrible. Just terrible.

Those teachers need to be taught a lesson.

[Red Dragon]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

EDIT: Nevermind

[Denmo]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

It's a conflict of interest that could be cleared up if the school and unions would compromise on a more intelligent plan.

But instead they've resorted to being stubborn, and everyone suffers because of it.

[Funk]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

Terrible. Just terrible.

Those teachers need to be taught a lesson.

Yeah, like...

zero + zero = DEATH!

[Sampson]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

Gotta love the government...

Ya'know if a private company had something like this, they would probably go bankrupt.

Oh, wait...
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/unr...-uaw-job-bank/

[Denmo]

Re: 700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

It's not just the government.



it's 40 minutes, but the key points it brings up is:

1. Because parents are limited to one school choice per district, they don't have the ability to send their child to a better school unless they can afford a private school or afford to move. 20/20 went to Belgium, where the parents can pick and pay for whatever school they want. The schools were forced to appeal to the parents by providing actual learning, or they wouldn't get the parent's money to keep going. Because public schools are government funded, the school doesn't have to care what child comes or goes, or whether or not they're the only choice the parent has.

2. Teachers Unions are too influential for their own good. They have forced many public schools to adopt insane policies for firing teachers in the name of protecting teacher's rights. It takes years to fire a teacher no matter what the offense. They have to keep paying them even if they were charged with sexual misconduct. No other job in America has those type of policies. In fact, the bad teachers get payed as much as the good ones, also thanks to union protections. In a system where you don't throw out the bad teacher, and don't reward the good teachers, you're going to get a lot of teachers who simply give up and don't care about the student's education.

I went to a private school where my band teacher quit. The next semester we got an enmormous whale of a lady who couldn't even wipe up after herself or bathe properly in the morning. She literally stank of ****, every day. She was gone by the end of the year. That wouldn't happen in a public school. The band would've been stuck with her for years, and I'd imagine many of them would have quit band altogether before she was actually fired.