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Not from the Onion: Teacher Rubber Rooms
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....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.
More here. Hat tip to Drea at Business Pundit.
Addendum: Rubber Room the movie (hat tip to Andy Orr) and from Gordon in the comments Rubber Room on the radio.
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on June 24, 2009 at 07:18 AM in Education | Permalink
Comments
In other news, the government to cut medical costs because they are big enough to have bargaining power, or some $#!+.
Posted by: Andrew at Jun 24, 2009 7:46:03 AM
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1232
Posted by: Gordon at Jun 24, 2009 7:50:45 AM
The TAL episode about this (above) was great. How do I get one of these jobs?
Posted by: Vake at Jun 24, 2009 7:53:07 AM
I want that job!
Posted by: Mickey at Jun 24, 2009 8:00:48 AM
In the This American Life story on this topic they interviewed a number of teachers who had been pulled out of the classroom and stuck in the rubber rooms — most of them had not been told why they were there and what they had allegedly done wrong. Nor did they know how long they would be held in the rubber rooms.
Posted by: Nick at Jun 24, 2009 8:05:37 AM
You won't after listening to the TAL episode. It sounds like pure hell.
Posted by: Chris at Jun 24, 2009 8:05:50 AM
"I want that job!"
But I'd want to telecommute.
Posted by: Tom at Jun 24, 2009 8:16:09 AM
But I'd want to telecommute.
I don't think they'd allow that--getting people to lose hope and quit by making them sit there day after day with no idea when they'll get out is part of the strategy, I'm sure.
But if you had the rubber-room teaching job and a laptop with a broadband card, you could collect that paycheck, telecommute to another job, and keep your sanity in the bargain. I wonder if any of the rubber room teachers are working a deal like that?
Posted by: Slocum at Jun 24, 2009 8:24:25 AM
The US Postal Service has a system like this for workers at its processing and distribution centers. It's usually used for minor injuries (well enough to come to work, not well enough to do the job), but it occasionally accommodates more vague circumstances.
Posted by: Joseph Logan at Jun 24, 2009 8:30:55 AM
Sounds pretty good. I'd just read all day.
Posted by: Andy at Jun 24, 2009 8:31:49 AM
Why can't they be put to work grading papers or formulating exams? That would free up time so that the rest of the city's teaching staff could spend more time with the students.
Posted by: MattJ at Jun 24, 2009 8:35:13 AM
Gee, maybe the city should hire the arbitrators for more then 5 days a month. Some of the things that these teachers have been removed for sound pretty trivial and it seems silly not to deal with them as quickly as possible. However, the theory that those teachers are actually being held there for being troublemakers probably has some truth to it.
Posted by: Wyrm2 at Jun 24, 2009 8:37:43 AM
Y = C + I - (G + T)
C + I = private production
G + T = State depradation
Posted by: AADL at Jun 24, 2009 8:44:40 AM
A year or so ago John Stossel did a report on this for 20/20. New York isn't the only city that does this practice either.
Posted by: Avery at Jun 24, 2009 9:13:19 AM
That's what I was thinking, MattJ. Maybe not specifically that, but there's definitely work to be done.
Posted by: Daniel Reeves at Jun 24, 2009 9:17:37 AM
And they are probably much more than we dont know of. But anyway is a hundred times better than what it is in the third wird countries, go there and see what is apolling regarding this nasty delictive act.
Posted by: mariana soffer at Jun 24, 2009 9:26:28 AM
This is the visible horror. The invisible horror is the millions of kids who are taught by teachers who would not be re-contracted under an "at will" system because they aren't teaching well enough, but who aren't doing anything badly enough to go through the contract procedure.
Posted by: Zbicyclist at Jun 24, 2009 10:01:06 AM
Sort of reminds me of when I worked in a VA hospital. Problem employees who were considered unsuitable for patient care were given meaningless tasks in remote locations so they couldn't hurt anyone. It took years to fire them, if, indeed, that ever took place. Oh, I forgot, government health care is supposed to SAVE money....
Posted by: ned at Jun 24, 2009 10:24:41 AM
My Mom was an NYC public school teacher, and her biggest chalenge to getting the best education to her students was teh union and the union rules. She needed to hire VERY carefully...If she got a lemon there was no lemonade. The union made it hard to get the most qualified in front of the students.
Posted by: Joe at Jun 24, 2009 10:25:05 AM
Sort of reminds me of when I worked in a VA hospital. Problem employees who were considered unsuitable for patient care were given meaningless tasks in remote locations so they couldn't hurt anyone. It took years to fire them, if, indeed, that ever took place. Oh, I forgot, government health care is supposed to SAVE money....
Posted by: ned at Jun 24, 2009 10:25:14 AM
John Taylor Gatto- NYC public school teacher, multiple National Teacher of the Year awards. If you don't read his views on education then you are just willfully ignorant.
Posted by: Gabe Harris at Jun 24, 2009 10:32:07 AM
I would be perfect for one of these jobs. Insubordination is a specialty of mine.
Posted by: Yancey Ward at Jun 24, 2009 10:39:40 AM
There are two unanswered questions in the article. The first is why does the City not hire sufficient arbitrators to clear this backlog - it just makes no sense not to. The second is why do union rules prevent reassignment to an administrative job. If both the City and the union are interested in efficiency both these things should happen. The political economy question is why aren't they?
Posted by: Paul Holden at Jun 24, 2009 11:04:22 AM
If I remember correctly, according to the Stollel report it usually costs about $1,000,000.00 to fire a teacher in the NYC system. If the teacher hasn't done something outrageous (i.e. having sex with students) that would cause the Union to agree to let the teacher be fired, it is cheaper to pay them to do nothing than to fire them.
Posted by: Vehical Driver at Jun 24, 2009 11:38:03 AM
I heard this months or maybe even years ago, and yet this program persists. They can't even get these people to do something productive? Have them make videos or something. Maybe there are some people just not suited for classrooms. Wow, that's a novel concept- everyone isn't identically talented.
This is essentially the same organization that people think is going to have some central committee give the go/no go on medical procedures. They have demonstrated such ability for allocation of resources, let's give them more power and responsibility fo' shizzle!
Posted by: Andrew at Jun 24, 2009 12:08:46 PM
