The AP reports that in New York City 700 public school teachers are being paid to do....nothing. Well, actually, as the AP reports, they are doing things--just not anything that can be called teaching--while they await disciplinary hearings:
Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do.
Because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them, the teachers have been banished by the school system to its "rubber rooms" — off-campus office space where they wait months, even years, for their disciplinary hearings.
The 700 or so teachers can practice yoga, work on their novels, paint portraits of their colleagues — pretty much anything but school work. They have summer vacation just like their classroom colleagues and enjoy weekends and holidays through the school year.
The Big Apple spends $65M annually paying these teachers at full salary. Arbitrators number 23 for the entire city, and they hear cases five--yes, five--days per month. Teachers commonly hang in limbo for 2 to 4 years, and stays of up to 6 years have been recorded.
Bottom Line. Perhaps President Obama's desire to federalize education could be applied to the Big Apple, while leaving the rest of the country alone.
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