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“Richard Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers, counters: “Tenure provides the right to due process. It is consistent with the American way; a person is innocent until proven guilty.””

I have to agree with this. How many times have we seen where someone was fired as soon as they were accused, and then they were proven innocent.

Take the NEA and the unions out of the equation and treat teachers like everyone else who is an at-will employee.

Innocent until proven guilty is a fine concept, but after someone pleads guilty it doesn’t seem particularly applicable.

Perhaps what the union president meant was that we shouldn’t just blindly accept the results of criminal proceedings when the person is considered guilty due to the statements of a criminal?

This is the correct course of action.

A person should be able to keep their job and be paid-until convicted-if they still can go to their job and work. Then go thru the firing process. If they can’t work because of trial, they should not be paid for that time.

The problem is-as it always is with government-it takes months for them to actually getting around to firing her. The policies, written by the unions, are very lucrative for the teacher, even after being fired.

Ideally, the pay would stop the moment there was a final verdict with no other appeals left. Once the conviction is done, so is their salary. 🙂

We’re always hearing about how teachers are underpaid. I just hope that 114K includes the cost of providing benefits.

Given the frequency of DUI convictions, I feel more comfortable knowing that it is does not mean an automatic or even expedited termination, unless of course your job description requires a valid driver’s license.

I disagree with is the use of DWI convictions as a means towards professional discipline, and the law should be changed in this regard. In New York, DWI is a class E felony, but it is not a crime of moral turpitude. A DWI conviction alone should not affect a person’s professional license or his or her job. On the other hand, if the person was working while intoxicated, even a little bit, then discipline is appropriate. Of course, if the job requires a clean driver’s license, then that is another story.

Every so often, in New York, a DWI conviction could work to a person’s advantage. Take the case of John Smith, an hourly contract employee, employed in the defense industry. Way back when, when I was an hourly contract empolyee in the defense industry I was called for jury duty. I was irked that I would have to give up significant pay to appear for jury duty. If I were picked, I could lose several weeks’ pay. Shortly after I returned from jury duty, after having lost a week’s pay for naught, John Smith was summoned for jury duty. He proudly bragged that since he had been convicted of a felony, DWI, he was forever exempt from serving on a jury. He simply mailed a copy of his conviction to the Commissioner of Jurors and voila, he recived a free pass. Ain’t America Great!

P.S.The Defense Investigative Service did not consider a single isolated DWI conviction significant enough to prevent Mr. Smith from getting a security clearance.

Part of the problem is they have combined tenure with union rules. The combination is deadly. Should be an either or not both. Similar to civil service and union rules. All it does is create a perfect storm of confusion, stalling to increase the cost of firing and keep them on the payroll for as long as possible.

A recent episode of WBEZ/Public Radio International’s “This American Life” excerpted part of a film documentary about the New York City Public School system’s answer to these teachers, which is at once a brilliant approach to dealing with teachers who can’t be terminated because of the many layers of appeal and protection, and at the same time a fantastic waste of money, paying the salaries of idle teachers:

Teachers who are considered discipline problems or liabilities or whatnot, but that can’t be affordably fired are idled in what’s called “The Rubber Room.” They’re paid to come in to some office-space belonging to the school system, and do nothing while collecting pay and benefits. The teachers interviewed all knew what incident put them in the rubber room, but they arranged from throwing a desk in anger which “grazed” a student, to uttering the f-bomb in a largely empty classroom but being overheard in the hallway. At any rate, somehow this solution, per some NYC public school’s beancounter, is more affordable than trying to fire the teachers, more affordable than letting them back in the classroom to risk lawsuits (or, I suppose, additional lawsuits in some cases), and more affordable than trying coercion or some other method to make them leave (and risk a lawsuit thereby).

Out of 80,000 public school teachers employed by NYC Public Schools, an estimated 600 to 900 are suspended in the rubber rooms. 1% sounds like a little, but it’s quite a lot.

http://www.rubberroommovie.com/

Teachers who are considered discipline problems or liabilities or whatnot, but that can’t be affordably fired are idled in what’s called “The Rubber Room.” They’re paid to come in to some office-space belonging to the school system, and do nothing while collecting pay and benefits. The teachers interviewed all knew what incident put them in the rubber room, but they arranged from throwing a desk in anger which “grazed” a student, to uttering the f-bomb in a largely empty classroom but being overheard in the hallway.