Via Hot Air, it appears New York City is–surprise!–participating in an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars in the midst of the state’s fiscal crisis.
Hundreds of New York City public school teachersaccused 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.
“You just basically sit there for eight hours,” said Orlando Ramos, who spent seven months in a rubber room, officially known as a temporary reassignment center, in 2004-05. “I saw several near-fights. `This is my seat.’ `I’ve been sitting here for six months.’ That sort of thing.”
From the NYC Department of Education:
Salaries are based on prior teaching experience as well as undergraduate and graduate degrees. As of May 2008, starting teacher salaries range from $45,530 (bachelor’s degree, no prior teaching experience) to $74,796 (master’s degree, 8 years teaching experience). Teachers who already have a master’s degree but no teaching experience will start at $51,425. With annual increases plus increases for additional coursework, teachers’ salaries will rise to the current maximum of $100,049 per year over time.
If my math checks, that means that 700 teachers having quiet time is costing the taxpayers of New York anywhere between $32 million and $70 million per year.
In case you were wondering, in 2009′s fiscal year New York faces a midyear budget gap of $2.5 billion, and the FY2010 budget deficit projection is $17.9 billion.
Almost makes you pine for card check and government run healthcare, doesn’t it?
