What does it take to get a NYC school teacher fired?
More than this apparently:
The city Department of Education has failed to fire a teacher rated “unsatisfactory” for six consecutive years. Ann Legra, 44, a first-grade teacher at PS 173 in Washington Heights, racked up “six years of failing her students,” the city argued in a 16-day termination hearing…
He imposed only a 45-day suspension without pay. Legra keeps her $84,500-a-year salary, but is now assigned to a pool of 1,400 teachers who serve as substitutes.
Gov. Cuomo last month called the teacher-evaluation system “baloney” after the latest results revealed that fewer than 1 percent of the state’s teachers were rated ineffective…
Actually, I had long assumed that NYC schoolteachers effectively can’t be fired short of conviction of a felony. Maybe not even then, depending on the severity of the offense. Here’s the reason:
Job protections for tenured teachers make it difficult to fire bad apples. The system requires that each charge be proven in a trial with witnesses, documents and arguments. The DOE must show the teacher was given training and chances to improve.
The hearing officers ”” picked jointly by the DOE and the teachers union ”” frequently balk at termination, instead ordering a fine or suspension and requiring the teacher to take courses.
It reminds me of trying to evict a tenant in a very liberal city—the laws tend to be such that it’s almost impossible, no matter how bad the tenants’ behavior. Teachers have become very much like tenants within the school system—tenants with a very powerful tenants’ association.
[NOTE: It’s not new, either, although it’s gotten worse. Even when I was a child, the NYC teachers union was powerful and very to the left.]
I worked as a civilian employee of the DoD in the mid-seventies. The inside joke there was that a civil service employee was like a two dollar pistol. They wouldn’t work and you couldn’t fire them.
Sounds very similar with NY teachers.
“NYC teachers union was powerful and very to the left.”
Unions, being the socialistic organizations they are always lean left; it’s only a question of degree. The Teachers’ unions, perhaps more emphatically in NYC than in other cities, are clear indications of why even FDR and Truman did not support public employee unions.
“The hearing officers – picked jointly by the DOE and the teachers union – frequently balk at termination.”
With the union’s position of any dues paying teacher is a good teacher and the administration’s position of- Hey its not our money or our kids, why wouldn’t this be the case.
The hearing officers if they ever had principles and a conscience long ago sold their souls to insure they had a steady diet of cases.
I suspect any hearing officer that uses common sense and looks out for the kids is a short timer. Not saying it is right, only that it mimics the way the Dems and establishment Republics act.
Can someone explain the rationale for giving elementary and high school teachers tenure?
Can anyone explain an $84,500-a-year salary for a first-grade teacher? How much expertise is needed to teach 1st grade?
old news:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rubber_Room
The Rubber Room.
So firing a first grade teacher requires more proof than a rape accusation? Cool.
I’m sure the lawyers can figure out a replace to replace those unions with tort reforms.