Over at The Education Wonks, they've been keeping a close eye on those who would sully the good name of education - and those who seem unable to fire teachers deserving of censure:
Here at the 'Wonks, we like to keep an eye on those whose wrong-doing is a detriment to the Education Craft. We will continue to do so. As we profiled before, The City of New York has a great deal of trouble getting rid of many of its teachers that have had....er...um...problems.
This is due to a combination of union rules, and government statutes. The allegations of bad behavior run the gamut from being drunk in the classroom, to being arrested with crack cocaine and other forms of criminal behavior.
So, when I saw this article in The New York Post titled "Class Clowns," I just knew that the news was not going to be good.
Nearly half of all public-school educators that have been brought up on disciplinary charges over the last five years---allegations ranging from drug use to corporal punishment--are still in the school system and earning full salaries. In some 37% of cases, the educator kept his or her job by order of an independent arbitrator of by settling their cases with the Department of Education.
Only 74 of the 555 educators charged with wrong-doing have been fired since the year 2000.
In a move allowing them to keep their pensions, more than 180 resigned under pressure.
There are currently 68 educators who have disciplinary cases pending.
I used to live in a town near Niagara Falls, New York. So I know a little something about The Post. It is a tabloid. And like many tabloids, it has an axe to grind. The use of "shock headlines" are The Post's stock-in-trade. But I think that in this case, they may be right.
Usually, where there is smoke, there is fire.
Assuming this isn't another "dress-on-backwards" take on the truth, The EduWonks are quite right to be concerned about this type of track record.
Posted by kswygert at January 26, 2005 07:52 PM