1,000 teachers demoted to subs

Another article on the REVOLUTIONARY change happening in NY public schools right now.  For the first time in a generation, teachers that can't find ANY school -- there are more than 1,000 in the city -- to hire them will NOT be able to force their way into a school:

This school year, no principals will be forced to take on new teachers whom they didn't hire. That's a drastic change from last year, when 2,800 teachers involuntarily moved to a new school by using seniority rules or because their job had been eliminated at another school, Klein said.

This ends the insane and highly disruptive "dance of the lemons" (I've also heard it called "pass the trash") (how horrifying and pathetic is it that a system existed -- and still exists in most big cities -- where such policies are so widespread that they have their own pejorative name?!):

In past years, all experienced teachers without assignments could bump colleagues with less seniority and take their jobs, thanks to provisions in the teachers union contract.

 

And rather than try to fire incompetent teachers, principals often encouraged instructors to move to another school - a process that became so common it is known as the "dance of the lemons."

 

But that all ended with the latest contract between the United Federation of Teachers and City Hall. The pact waived longtime job protections, including the seniority bumping rights, in exchange for higher salaries.

 

"I made the decision by negotiating with the UFT that we would no longer impose teachers on any school," Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said yesterday during a back-to-school round-table discussion with reporters.

 

Klein said unwanted teachers no longer will be moved around in "a random and arbitrary fashion."

Bloomberg and Klein caught some flak for not getting enough when they signed the latest deal with the teacher union, but this is a powerful example of what they DID get.

 

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1,000 teachers demoted to subs

 

BY ERIN EINHORN

NY DAILY NEWS, 9/2/06

http://www.nydailynews.com/09-02-2006/news/story/448759p-377805c.html

 

More than 1,000 city teachers - including some public school veterans - will be relegated to the ranks of substitute instructors when classes begin Tuesday, officials said yesterday.

 

In past years, all experienced teachers without assignments could bump colleagues with less seniority and take their jobs, thanks to provisions in the teachers union contract.