I almost vomited after reading the Atlantic Magazine's "Puff Piece" in their interview with ex-Chancellor Joel Klein. He basically spun his accomplishments and the magazine never seemed to question his faulty analysis. For example, he claims that no Principal wants the ATRs without saying that his "Fair Student Funding" fiasco made Principals think twice about hiring experienced teachers and reducing their already shrunken budget. Furthermore, he failed to mention that he engineered the ATR crises in the first place by encouraging principals to hire "newbie teachers" and that Tweed will pay for teachers excessed indefinitely.
Another inaccuracy by Joel Klein was that union-approved Arbitrators refuse to terminate teachers. The reality is all Arbitrators must be approved by both the UFT and the DOE and mere accusations do not mean the charges are true. Evidence is necessary to terminate teachers and if the DOE cannot supply such evidence, the Arbitrators will not terminate the teacher. In Joel Klein's mind any accusation should result in termination. If that was true, many of his subordinates at Tweed should have been terminated and of course they weren't. I guess he had different rules for teachers.
However, the best lies by ex-Chancellor Joel Klein came with the recruitment vs. retention issue. In Mr. Klein's delusional world the best teachers leave the public schools, with their tenure, pension, and retiree health benefits for high functioning Charter schools who have none of these expenses. Really? Almost all Charter school teachers are those "two year wonders" from Teach for America and the few who are not, couldn't get a public school position. Worse yet, even the best of the Charter schools cannot seem to retain teachers who flee to either the public schools or leave the profession entirely. Where the lying ex-Chancellor gets his phony numbers from is beyond me. I need to remind my readers of what the real Joel Klein legacy is Here.
Many of the existing problems in the Public Schools were the handiwork of Joel Klein and his cronies who had eight years to double the DOE Administrative bloat, reduce funding to the schools, and cause havoc that put us in the mess the schools find themselves in presently.
11 comments:
What is so new about the post? Is it alway the case that the strong defines the story and the weak is being defined? And having a website like this is better than not having one.
It would be horrible to lose a teacher like this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/nyregion/new-idealistic-teachers-face-layoffs-in-bloomberg-budget.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Well, in theory arbitrators are "impartial" but the reality is they flout the law all the time to help school districts.
Just because an arbitrator upholds a dismissal does not mean the charges are valid.
I was wrongfully fired in Nevada when my principal screwed up, and the arbitrator upheld my dismissal anyway. Note that unions do NOT pay for appeals, so few teachers have the wherewithal to pay lawyers up front to get decisions reversed.
You are a bit naive if you think teachers actually have rights. When you realize associations and school districts are in bed together most if not all the time, you realize arbitrators seldom go against school districts for fear of not being called back.
New York City teachers have a better chance with arbitrators than teachers in other states and other cities, but one must be careful to think arbitrators are fair.
The problems with administrative law are too many to mention here.
Teachers and prisoners are a lot alike; all prisoners claim they are innocent and all teachers accused of doing something wrong claim they are innocent. It is amazing that not a single prisoner or teacher has ever done anything wrong. Everyone is being framed by the police or the principal.
Anon 9:00
This post was to remind people what Joel Klein's real legacy was and not spin the truth as he did.
Anon 10:52
I guess it would be acceptable to get rid of "great teachers" who just happens to "piss off" the Principal or makes too much money.
Your complaint should be with the Mayor who increased the DOE's central Administrative budget by 105%, while reducing teachers and starving the schools.
Susan
In New York Arbitrators tend to be more fair because we are a union State.
Anon 12:44
In the DOE, teachers are guilty and it is up to them to show the evidence. Your analogy between teachers and prisoners is false and you sound like one of those bumbling Tweed Administrators.
Chaz, while you were in timeout how many teachers did you meet that said they were guilty?
Anon 7:24
Quite a few. The problem is that every teacher can be guilty of violating the Chancellor's Regulations. Be it an inappropriate comment or touch, insubordination, or an action.
The real problem is that the DOE embellishes the innocuous action into something it never was.
Chaz, I do not know what you are thinking but it is NEVER ok to inappropriately touch a student. If you inappropriately touch a child you should be fired immediately!!!
Also, even you Chaz must admit that 95% or more of teachers in time out say they are innocent. The reality is that there are some innocent teachers and some guilty teacher but I can promise you that > 95% of teachers are not innocent.
You keep picking the stories of the small minority that are actually innocent and you ignore that majority that are actually guilty.
That being said, if you think it is ok to inappropriately touch a child, you and I have a different definition of innocent.
Klein's Teacher-Bashing Troll Patrol is out in force, I see!! Once a prosecutor, always a prosecutor!! One fact remains.....he's an ugly oligarchic lying example of necrosis from the inside out!!!
Cuomo is finally getting it right. We need tougher standards.
Yes. It's too bad that there's no research whatsoever indicating value-added to be accurate, that no one has ever had any success with it, that its margin of error is outrageous. But hey, let's just wing it like we've been doing in NYC for 9 years with no tangible results, and hope for the best.
Yeah, that's the ticket.
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