Posted on 10/03/2006 5:35:30 PM PDT by neverdem
October 2006
Joel Klein led the Justice Department's attack on Microsoft for its alleged efforts to monopolize the software market. But Microsoft is a hotbed of competition compared to the organization Klein runs now. Klein is chancellor of New York City's public school system, a monopoly so heavily regulated that sometimes it's unable to fire even dangerous teachers.
The series of steps a principal must take to dismiss an instructor is Byzantine. "It's almost impossible," Klein complains.
The rules were well-intended. The union was worried that principals would play favorites, hiring friends and family members while firing good teachers. If public education were subject to the competition of the free market, those bureaucratic rules would be unnecessary, because parents would hold a bad principal accountable by sending their kids to a different school the next year. But government schools never go out of business, and parents' ability to change schools is sharply curtailed. So the education monopoly adopts paralyzing rules instead.
The regulations are so onerous that principals rarely even try to fire a teacher. Most just put the bad ones in pretend-work jobs, or sucker another school into taking them. (They call that the "dance of the lemons.") The city payrolls include hundreds of teachers who have been deemed incompetent, violent, or guilty of sexual misconduct. Since the schools are afraid to let them teach, they put them in so-called "rubber rooms" instead. There they read magazines, play cards, and chat, at a cost to New York taxpayers of $20 million a year.
Once, Klein reports, the school system discovered that a teacher was sending sexual e-mails to a 16-year-old student. "This was the most unbelievable case to me," he says, "because the e-mail was there, he admitted to it. It was so thoroughly offensive." Even with the teacher's confession, it took six years of expensive litigation before the school could fire him. He didn't teach during those six years, but he still got paid—more than $350,000 total.
What did it take to finally get rid of him? What does it take to get rid of any teacher whose offenses are so egregious that administrators are willing to tackle the red tape? Read on.
How To Fire An Incompetent Teacher, an epic spelunk through the New York school system. [PDF]
Adapted from Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel—Why Everything You Know is Wrong (Hyperion), by John Stossel. Copyright 2006. Reprinted with permission.
Have a Bible planted on the teacher's desk?
BTTT!
I agree with labette; wearing a WWJD bracelet to class would get them fired so fast it wouldn't even be funny.
Beat me to it!
Teachers and other Government employees are the last of the bullet proof Unions. The results of that speaks for themselves.
Get rid of the NEA?
Give a two week lesson where students pretend they are Christians. They take Christian names, memorize passages from the Bible, recite Christian prayers, give up something for Lent, receive a pretend communion. To learn about Christianity, of course.
Road-Warrior Bloomberg Next Heads to Boston
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
Tell me again why we need government schools?
bump
UCLA management professor William Ouchi points out that the Catholic schools in New York City have a central office staff of 22. The public schools have 10 times as many students, which should translate into a central office staff of 220, Ouchi says, but the actual number is 25,500.
Tell me again why we need government schools?
A)Because everything hinges on an educated population.
B)Because at one time they taught common values and were the moral fulcrum of a community
C)Because they provide an excellent education in those communities that can afford them
D)Because they are an important factor in determining property values.
Or, to summarize:
Because some people benefit from government schools far beyond their personal out-of-pocket cost.
Once, Klein reports, the school system discovered that a teacher was sending sexual e-mails to a 16-year-old student. "This was the most unbelievable case to me," he says, "because the e-mail was there, he admitted to it. It was so thoroughly offensive." Even with the teacher's confession, it took six years of expensive litigation before the school could fire him. He didn't teach during those six years, but he still got paid—more than $350,000 total.
Cheers!
Thanks for the tip on William Ouchi. I'll keep my ears open for anything from/on the guy.
Is that metric from his book "Making Schools Work"?
Here's some links for the forum I found with a quick google:
http://www.reason.com/0604/fe.ls.the.shtml
http://www.milkeninstitute.org/events/events.taf?function=detail&ID=117&cat=Forums
"Cheers" was my line!
And the teacher was just exercising his civil liberties ...
If you think it's tough to fire a teacher, try firing a sanitation worker.
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