Posted on 10/15/2008 6:56:10 PM PDT by neverdem
More than 425 retired educators return to work in New York school districts every year, obtaining waivers from the city and state Education Departments to allow them to collect paychecks and pensions in what critics have called “double-dipping.”
A new state law signed by Gov. David A. Paterson on Friday will tighten government oversight over this longstanding practice, which was intended to help school districts cover hard-to-fill positions with experienced educators but has instead allowed some superintendents and principals to receive six-figure salaries on top of six-figure pensions.
The new law requires school districts and public agencies to wait a year before hiring a retired worker into the same or similar position. Previously, there was no waiting period, although some New York City agencies like the Administration for Children’s Services had adopted a one-year waiting period on their own. In addition, school districts and agencies will now be required to show more extensive documentation that they tried to recruit nonretirees for the positions.
State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, whose investigations into pension fraud in school districts led to the new law, said school superintendents and others had routinely abused the pension system this way. “This was a great game of taxpayer abuse for many years,” he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday, “and if you follow the money, you end up at the state pension fund.”
Robert N. Lowry, deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents, which represents about 700 superintendents, said that while he understood concerns about “people retiring one day and being rehired the next,” the new one-year waiting period could make it harder for school districts to operate...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
My ex-wife does it in NM.
$40,000 pension - $45,000 wage. Teaching 6th graders to read and can't spell "it".
Gee - and the whole country’s broke. What a surprise! How did that happen?
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FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
And, of course, the first thing threatened to be cut in any budget the school board wants to force, is sports and activities for the kids.
You know, it’s only once in a blue moon that a democrat comes along that I would even think of voting for.
Paterson is beginning to look like one of those.
Of the few actions I’ve heard of that he’s taken on various issues, I have yet to find one that I vehemently disagree with. Most I actually am in favor of, like this one.
I just can’t imagine willingly pulling the lever for a dem. It’s like trying to drive on the wrong side of the road.
Since the first of the year when he took over he sounded good and started to do the right things, he was a senator for a long while. He started working with the R’s in the senate, Skelos got onboard with his property tax cap and of course the assembly democrats led by Silver stopped it.
Now Paterson is trying to get the dems to take over the senate, he has raised substantial cash for them. Why? Because he is one. He is a snake because of this. Watch what he does...
If the dems take over the senate, nothing he was trying to get accomplished will get done. So as much as we liked what he said and tried to do, be careful and watch what he does after the elections.
This is something that needed to be done, the people were coming unglued over the pensions and the double dipping by lawyers etc....
bs on the teacher shortage...I know a ton of people with teaching degrees just waiting to get in somewhere...
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