Mayor Michael Bloomberg, School Chancellor Joel Klein and United Federation of Teacher President Michael Mulgrew signed an agreement on Thursday, April 15, 2010 to end all “rubber rooms,” where teachers under investigation of misconduct and incompetence are assigned, pending their cases within the five boroughs.
This past year, roughly 550 teachers were under investigation for misconduct. Some teachers spend months or even years doing futile things such as reading, surfing the web, playing cards, sleeping and creating their own businesses, while still collecting full salaries ranging from $70,000- $100,000 a year plus full benefits from the Board of Education. Their “work schedule” even follows the school calendar.
“I have always felt that teachers under investigation should receive full pay and benefits. Many cases of misconduct are often unfounded. Teachers need protection and due process. The tactics of the rubber room has hurt the teacher’s union credibility and integrity. One spiteful accusation can ruin a career. All a student has to do is accuse a teacher of some sort of crime,” says Ms. G*, an elementary school teacher with the Board of Education for over 15 years.
On the other hand, Ms. N*, also a New York City elementary school teacher for 10 years feels “with due process, which is mandated by the law, claims of wrong doings should be addressed in a timely manner with no pay during the interim.” She believes that those then found innocent of charges can be paid retroactively, while those found guilty should receive nothing. As for benefits, Ms. N* believes that “teachers need to start contributing to health benefits they receive like everyone else in America.”
While their cases are pending, teachers will now be assigned to administrative or clerical positions in their schools which do not involve interaction with children. “The city is paying for them. There is no reason why they shouldn’t do a days work…all city employees do,” stated Mayor Bloomberg during his press conference Thursday morning.
“I do think that teachers under investigation for misconduct should be allowed to work in some capacity. I feel very strongly that all teachers need the protection of the teachers union. This is true now more than ever. It seems that principals coming out of The Leadership Academy are taught intimidation tactics. They no longer know how to play nicely in the sandbox. So while the teachers union is absolutely necessary and all teachers should have due process, the process can and should take place at a quicker place,” said Ms. G*.
To move the cases along, the number of arbitrators who hear teachers’ cases has increased from 23 to 39 so “multiple cases can be heard simultaneously,” said Mayor Bloomberg. United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said, “We want a faster, fairer process. That is the way this process should work and that is what this agreement does.”
Ms. N*, stated “the funds that were previously used to pay these teachers to sit around in a room doing nothing need to go to hiring a small group of legal administrators that could expedite all these cases in a matter of months. The United Federation of Teachers is too cushy with their teachers. Bad teachers need to get the boot.”
According to officials, the rubber rooms will not be closed until September and they intend on resolving all pending cases by the end of 2010.
Under the new agreement, the Department of Education has 60 days to investigate charges of misconduct and 10 days for incompetence, after removal from the classroom. If the Department of Education fails to complete the investigation during this time period, teachers are allowed to return to the classroom. Previous to this new agreement, the city had 6 months to issue charges.
I strongly believe that the city and the United Federation of Teachers are taking a step in the right direction. Like other New York City employees, such as the Fire Department and the Police Department, teachers should be assigned to “desk duties.” A firefighter and/or police officer who violates the “Oath of Office,” on or off the job, has severe disciplinary actions that are executed. Once one is accused, firefighters and police officers are taken out of the field and assigned desk work under strict supervision. However, they are innocent until proven guilty.
There is no doubt in my mind that the rubber rooms should have been the first thing to go. Instead of terminating the rubber rooms, Mayor Bloomberg thought it was more effective to lay off 8,500 teachers this year and close New York City Public schools on top of that. A comment Mayor Bloomberg said that I thought was the most absurd thing a person of his prominence and intelligence can say is, “There’s never been any pressure to do so [referring to the closing of the rubber rooms]…We can’t afford to do that anymore.”
These rubber rooms are costing the city $30 million each year, which does not include substitute teachers for the accused teachers, renting space for the rubber rooms and hiring security guards to keep peace. Mayor Bloomberg said the $30 million that will be saved from salaries, will be going back into the classroom where it belongs. “I think over time we should be able to recapture a significant sum of that and put it back in the classroom,” Chancellor Joel Klein stated. Ms. G* says, “I also hope that the $30 million saved will go back into the classroom…but that remains to be seen.”
Nicely done piece that's relevant and newsworthy and shows off your writing voice. I like that you have points of view from two different teachers and also quotes from the Mayor, et al.
ReplyDeleteYour writing here is mostly clean and easy to read, though in a few spots you could use some paragraph breaks. Where would you place new paragraphs in this one long graph?
"This past year, roughly 550 teachers were under investigation for misconduct. Some teachers spend months or even years doing futile things such as reading, surfing the web, playing cards, sleeping and creating their own businesses, while still collecting full salaries ranging from $70,000- $100,000 a year plus full benefits from the Board of Education. Their “work schedule” even follows the school calendar. “I have always felt that teachers under investigation should receive full pay and benefits. Many cases of misconduct are often unfounded. Teachers need protection and due process. The tactics of the rubber room has hurt the teacher’s union credibility and integrity. One spiteful accusation can ruin a career. All a student has to do is accuse a teacher of some sort of crime,” says Ms. G*, an elementary school teacher with the Board of Education for over 15 years. On the other hand, Ms. N*, also a New York City elementary school teacher for 10 years feels “with due process, which is mandated by the law, claims of wrong doings should be addressed in a timely manner with no pay during the interim.” She believes that those then found innocent of charges can be paid retroactively, while those found guilty should receive nothing. As for benefits, Ms. N* believes that “teachers need to start contributing to health benefits they receive like everyone else in America.”
Aside from that, nice job.
I never really too much about the "rubber rooms." I heard about them here and there so I think this post gives some great info. As for my stance on it I'm still deciding. I have heard some stories about people making million of dollars from having so much free time while in the "rubber room" that started multi-million dollar corporations from the computer while getting paid for being there...so who knows!!
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