What do you think happens to you if you're a teacher removed from the classroom for incompetence, falling down drunk on the job, or misconduct?
You get fired, right?
Not in New York City. There you sit in a classroom (nicknamed "The Rubber Room") all day with other suspended teachers and collect your full salary, for years.
Joel Klein vs. New York City teachers [The New Yorker]
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Comments (15)
Your tax dollars at work...... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Gmac | August 27, 2009 8:12 AM | Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Your tax dollars at work...
It's not called the 'Vampire State' for nothing and that's one of the reasons right there.
1. Posted by Gmac | August 27, 2009 8:12 AM |
Score: 7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 08:12
2. Posted by Pretzel Logic | August 27, 2009 8:20 AM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
The American education system is the LAST place on earth where we need a union. What a farce.
2. Posted by Pretzel Logic | August 27, 2009 8:20 AM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 08:20
3. Posted by wolfwalker | August 27, 2009 9:33 AM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
This doesn't only happen in New York. Firing an incompetent teacher is difficult everywhere, and practically impossible in a lot of places.
3. Posted by wolfwalker | August 27, 2009 9:33 AM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 09:33
4. Posted by Mac Lorry | August 27, 2009 9:46 AM | Score: 8 (8 votes cast)
With ready availability of Wi-Fi and notebook computers many Rubber Room denizens surf the web passing the time being trolls on this site and many others. As for UFT, it's just another example in a long list that demonstrate why organized labor should be barred from politics the same way churches are barred.
4. Posted by Mac Lorry | August 27, 2009 9:46 AM |
Score: 8 (8 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 09:46
5. Posted by JustRuss | August 27, 2009 10:01 AM | Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Teachers Unions are among the highest donors to political parties, and it is NEVER republicans. I wonder why that is?
In California (when I lived there) The union even had the balls to have the School Districts deduct union dues from paychecks automatically and send it to them! WTF?
These types of unions are why people think they are all evil now. Granted many of them ARE evil, but most of them are only semi-evil or quasi-evil. There is nothing wrong with organizing your fellow workers in order to make demands on the boss. But every boss in the US should have the right to fire your ass. It is there damn business and unions and govt need to butt the hell out.
hehe, I had to add the last two lines just as troll bait. I do believe it for the most part (and it sucks getting fired or let go, I know) but laws about who you can hire based on sex, age, or race are reverse 'ism all around. God forbid you are a disabled black woman going up against a more qualified white man. "But she fills 3 quota's!"
5. Posted by JustRuss | August 27, 2009 10:01 AM |
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 10:01
6. Posted by Flu-Bird | August 27, 2009 10:54 AM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Theres too many worms in the core of the big apple
6. Posted by Flu-Bird | August 27, 2009 10:54 AM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 10:54
7. Posted by OLDPUPPYMAX | August 27, 2009 10:56 AM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Not permitted to fire "teachers" in NY City. Of course, should a teacher play Rush for her class, all bets are off.
7. Posted by OLDPUPPYMAX | August 27, 2009 10:56 AM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 10:56
8. Posted by 914 | August 27, 2009 11:03 AM | Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
Obama needs to install a rubber room in the White House for all his union thugs to sober up.
8. Posted by 914 | August 27, 2009 11:03 AM |
Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 11:03
9. Posted by OregonMuse | August 27, 2009 11:23 AM | Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
The number one idea to improve education in this country is to break the power of the teachers' unions. Of course, the elected official who takes this on this task would have to have the smarts and the balls of Margaret Thatcher on steroids.
9. Posted by OregonMuse | August 27, 2009 11:23 AM |
Score: 6 (6 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 11:23
10. Posted by Hank | August 27, 2009 11:25 AM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
This sounds similar to the Jobs Banks for UAW workers. Another union negotiated fiasco.
If Teachers unions weren't able to extort their salaries from taxpayers, they'd be bankrupt also.
10. Posted by Hank | August 27, 2009 11:25 AM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 11:25
11. Posted by OregonMuse | August 27, 2009 1:08 PM | Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
By the way, this New Yorker piece is good journalism. We bitch and moan about the biased MSM on this blog a lot, but let's give credit where credit is due: this article is informative, well-researched, well-written, and you can tell the author tried to present all sides fairly, from critics to union reps to school officials to rubber room inhabitants.
It's high-quality work and the author should be commended.
11. Posted by OregonMuse | August 27, 2009 1:08 PM |
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 13:08
12. Posted by Marc | August 27, 2009 4:01 PM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
"In California (when I lived there) The union even had the balls to have the School Districts deduct union dues from paychecks automatically and send it to them! WTF?"
That's hardly new news.
As far back as the early seventies the UAW forced the auto makers to deduct their monthly union dues that amounted to twice your hourly wage.
12. Posted by Marc | August 27, 2009 4:01 PM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on August 27, 2009 16:01
13. Posted by hyperbolist | August 28, 2009 9:52 AM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
My third grade teacher threw a chair at a little girl and flirted with twelve year olds, and he was "demoted" to librarian so that he couldn't have regular contact with kids (because there aren't any kids in an elementary school libary!), and so he sat behind a desk reading all day while "volunteers" were made to put all of the books back on the shelves.
13. Posted by hyperbolist | August 28, 2009 9:52 AM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on August 28, 2009 09:52
14. Posted by Flu-Bird | August 28, 2009 11:13 AM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
This is what happens when the NEA is running our schools
14. Posted by Flu-Bird | August 28, 2009 11:13 AM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on August 28, 2009 11:13
15. Posted by terrorbird | August 31, 2009 4:16 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Force all teachers to join the leftists NEA in order to hold a teaching job
15. Posted by terrorbird | August 31, 2009 4:16 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 31, 2009 16:16