Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Idle teachers are a huge waste of money

New York City is paying $81 million over two years in salaries and benefits for teachers without permanent teaching jobs, according to a report being released on Tuesday.

$81 Million for Reserve of Teachers

The teachers are part of the so-called reserve pool, which holds teachers whose positions have been eliminated, but who have yet to secure a new permanent teaching position at another school.

The reserve is an outgrowth of the city’s contract with the teachers’ union, which ended seniority rights in staffing decisions as well as the automatic transfer of teachers who had been cut because of shrinking enrollment, the closing of large schools or the elimination of particular programs. At the time, Chancellor Joel I. Klein said he would rather absorb the cost of the teachers in the reserve pool than saddle principals with teachers they did not want.

Under the contract, teachers whose positions have been eliminated from one school and cannot find another to hire them, or who simply do not look for a new job, are assigned to schools to fill in as substitute teachers or temporary replacements. They collect full teacher salary and benefits.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read that this morning. It is shocking. That money could be used to improve our schools. No-show jobs for teachers. What are they, the mob?

Anonymous said...

The rotten legacy of Albert Shanker and his former mistress who now heads up the teachers' union!

"Those who can.... do.
Those who can't....teach",
as the old saying goes!

We might add to this,
"And those who can't teach....
teach teachers"!

Anonymous said...

Gee, is anyone in the press going to ask her? How about a parent while the cameras are rolling (hint hint)

Hell no. After the tweeded, the unions are the fair haired child in city politics.

Anonymous said...

So someone explain to me why teachers need housing handouts again?

Anonymous said...

The massive failure of the education system here (and throughout the US) is because, in the 1960s, the teachers decided that the model to use was that of an industrial union. Interchangeable workers "teaching" interchangeable youngsters.

The object was to decrease work and increase pay, and increase membership to amass a large treasury for political action.

None of the effort had anything to do with actual teaching of students. The kids were simply fodder for union demands.

In a social setting, teachers don't discuss improved teaching techniques. No, but they will go on endlessly, informing each other of the current contract, rules and benefits.

There is simply no pride of accomplishment among teachers. There is a sad, deadening union mentality that essentially controls how teachers think and act. They are really not professionals. They are, instead, no more than assembly-line workers.

Any "teacher" who ever went on strike, or, who supports the idea of striking is simply one more factory hand feeding on taxpayers.

Anonymous said...

More evidence: Why was Weingarten (head of the teachers' union) at a meeting with Sharpton last night.

He plans to "shut down" the city to protest the Not Guilty verdict for the 3 cops involved in the Bell shooting.

Why does the teachers' union object to a not guilty verdict for detectives who also belong to a union?

No! Don't say - don't ever say - that the UFT is a Socialist industrial union, more interested in fund raising and agit-prop than in respectable, civil behavior!

Not Socialist. No. Marxist. Even Stalinist, like her admirer, the Commissar.

Anonymous said...

This blog prides itself on being independent of Bloomberg's city hall. However, it is copying the Bloomberg anti-teacher line. It may be fun to do, but you know there are two sides to this story.
No teachers that I know who were excessed like being permanent substitutes. The ones that I know who were excessed do want to teach their own classes, but their classes were eliminated and classes combined into larger ones. Now we have overcrowded classrooms with 34 students. Is this what you want?

Anonymous said...

Substitute teachers are not idle teachers. Go back to class and learn the difference.