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On Monday, Chaz wrote a blog piece on how FSF "shortchanges students" and the DOE does diddly. As does the UFT. He used a recent Chalkbeat article that more or less explained how FSF came into being and how it works. Of course I take anything Chalkbeat blabbers about with a grain of salt but I have to admit, it was enlightening.
First, I am not buying the age discrimination angle some False Prophet dressed as a clown claims. Yeah, there might be some, but after reading the Chalkbeat article, in my opinion, proving age discrimination short of smoking gun, will be extremely, extremely difficult to prove. But alas, there are many followers that enjoy the Kool-Aid and will follow blindly until...well maybe there is no "until."
But here is a simple way to get ATR's hired that myself and The Crack Team put together.
Now as we know, an ATR making max salary (I forget what it is top of my head, but I am just going to use $100k for this post) is doing a damn fine job, likes the school and both the ATR and principal are in synch, and the principal really wants this ATR on board.
The ATR's salary will come out of the school budget. Now getting hired in the middle of the year is tough enough, what with the budget having already been spent. The following year, who knows? Will the school receive less monies? Maybe more but not enough monies?
The ATR at $100k is kind screwed. As well as the students and community of that school.
So the ATR is rotating to and fro not being able to do what they do best but rather be a glorified substitute. Just being wasted away.
But of course Tweed, in all it's glorified, illogical, infinite wisdom continues to pay this ATR $100k per year.
But the ATR can't be hired because the school lacks the funds to hire said ATR. Bear with me, I'm getting to the point.
The school gets it's monies from, care to guess? Yep, you are right. The school gets it's monies from Tweed. The same dolts that are paying the ATR $100k a year to do lunch duty, file papers, teach Latin when that ATR has a common branch license, etc... You get my point right?
Here is how we fix it. Kinda Charter School Style© (Just in case the UFT decides to use this idea. I, and The Crack Team, can get royalty checks).
The money follows the teacher. Tweed gives the money for that ATR's salary to the specific school. Case closed. Problem solved. Everyone is happy. Tweed reduces it's self-created embarrassment of ATR's, a principal gets a darn good teacher, the students get a darn good teacher, the ATR is happy, and there will be less teachers are anti-anxiety medications.
It makes sense. Both the school's budget and the money Tweed spends on ATR's comes from well. It's like when my wife tries to bet me money. She thinks I am wrong about something, she says, "I'll bet you $100." I say, "No, that's illogical. that $100 comes from our money. You or I have access to that $100 no matter what. Bet me breakfast in bed for a month or something like that." Can't tell you how many times I have had breakfast in bed. ;)
The Crack Team believes that this method is the best, and most adult, method to solve the inanity of this ATR issue.