(2007-03-14) Unfireable Education Employees

The DailyNews revealed yesterday that more than 500 teachers who nobody wanted to hire are working as overpriced subs and fill-ins for salaries as high as $93,416, costing taxpayers more than $37 million a year, plus millions more for benefits. But teachers are not the only unwanted school employees collecting public paychecks. A list of unwanted principals and assistant principals obtained by The News shows 56 administrators earning as much as $108,000 a year - and who collectively cost taxpayers $5 million annually. (Educating Kids In Nyc, Teachers Union)

Nov'2007 update: the city started a process of helping principals dump bad teachers then apologized at the way it was announced (but I don't think the actual process changed). More than 700 school employees, mostly teachers, are now assigned to centers known as "rubber rooms," after having been removed from the classroom. While school officials say those employees are under investigation or at some stage in the disciplinary process, teachers' union officials say that many have had no charges filed against them.

Jun'2009 update: no change. 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... 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. How crazy is that?

Dec'2010 update: some progress In mid-November, there were 236 teachers and administrators still in reassignment, down from 770 when the deal to close the rubber rooms was signed, some game-playing. Some are now doing basic tasks, like light filing, paper-clipping, tracking down student information on a computer or using 25-foot tape measures to determine the dimensions of entire school buildings. Others sit without work in unadorned cubicles or at out-of-the-way conference tables.