Wow, what timing! Must be a coincidence. Just days after Bürgermeister für das Leben Bloomberg threw down is gauntlet in some Freudian show of power in which he threatened 2,500 teacher layoffs if the UFT did not accept a 2% raise today's New York Post featured an interesting op-ed piece. Carol Kellerman of the Citizens Budget Commission chimed in, in fact I dare say, parroted the party line of the Ediots attempting to reform education in their own warped way. Not amazingly, the crack team here at SBSB did some research and much to the team's non-astonishment did not find one iota of any real education experience in Ms Kellermann's resume. Impressive as she might find it to be.
Not going to analyze the entire piece. Waste of time. Just what she, or Bloomberg and/or his cronies told her to write.
End compensation for teachers who aren't teaching. About 1,400 teachers are paid to be in an "Absent Teacher Reserve" -- at a cost of about $74 million a year -- which doesn't require them to teach regularly. They should be compensated only for a six-month period while searching for a new job, not carried indefinitely on the payroll.
How do you intend to do this? The ATR pool was a monster created by Klein, kept in place by Klein, and just loved to death by Klein. Well, also by Randi Weingarten spineless as she may be. But nevertheless, this is a problem created by the EDiots. No Carol, nowhere does it say that teacher's aren't required to teach regularly. Please, you must have in your employ a fact checker. Teachers from a school that closed, or teachers that are sent to the Rubber Room, and offered a settlement, or lose in arbitration are put into the ATR pool by the DOE. Once there it is a type of purgatory. Most of these teachers are veteran teachers. With minds, and making a good salary. Oh, and labeled as BAD TEACHERS. Why Carol would a principal, a principal that is inexperienced, insecure, from the Leadership Academy hire someone who knows more? Why would any principal want to take on someone who is making over 75k when they can get tow mindless drones for that price? Think about it.
Quick termination for unsatisfactory teachers. Teachers charged with poor performance and other infractions (some 640 at the moment) are taken out of the classroom and paid for an average of nearly three years while their cases are considered. This process should be greatly expedited.
How quick do you want it Carol? No due process? Define poor performance? Remember, boring does not count. Case law proves it so. What kind of infractions? Having a coffee cup in your hand? A Coca-Cola? Insubordination? Why not put teachers in the Rubber Rooms that truly are considered a danger to children? Do you have any idea how easy it is for a principal to jam a teacher if she or he wishes?
Use financial rewards to attract qualified teachers in hard-to-fill fields. Nearly one teacher in 10 isn't certified to teach his or her assigned subjects -- especially in special education, math and science. We should use targeted pay increases to help staff these areas.
Ah, who cares.
Merit pay should replace seniority rewards. Ending pay hikes solely for seniority after 10 years would eventually save about $285 million a year, enough to fund a substantial merit-pay program.
What do you base merit pay on Carol? Does a teacher in Forest Hills, Riverdale, or Staten Island deserve more or less merit pay than a teacher in Bed-Stuy, Hunts Point, or Melrose? WHat about the phys ed. teacher? The art teacher, the music teacher? Please phrase your answer with out using the words test and scores.
Kill the "last in, first out" rule -- which requires, in the case of layoffs, that the most recently hired teachers, no matter how good, be laid off first. It makes no sense to spend time and resources recruiting new teachers and then require that the newest teachers be fired first, without regard to merit, in tough economic times.
And how do we determine who goes? Will a close friend of the principal go? Will the one who suckles at the sphincter of the principal, yet is a horrible teacher be let go? I doubt it. But why are teachers being the one to give up the last in, first out rule? Why not cops, firefighters, nurses, sanitation workers, in fact all city workers? Oh yeah, it makes you look good to crap on teachers.
I give you a challenge Carol. Teach in a real inner city school for one year. You look rich enough to sacrifice a year of your six figure income. You probably have a Masters. You can start at about 46k. Come into the deepest part of the South Bronx and show the world how easy it is. Put your money where your mouth is.
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