Wow, RUN, don't walk, to read this powerful op ed in the NY Daily News, written by a veteran teacher, exposing the pernicious consequences of the mind-numbing, adult-serving, children-screwing 165-page union contract.  He calls on the mayor to "rip it up and start over" and argues that "the power of the UFT, as enforced through its contract, must be broken."  Hear, hear!:

But the real shocker isn't the teachers who get caught; it is those who don't. In my 11 years in the system, I have seen a teacher drag a boy down the stairs by his ankles, seen a teacher break down and start weeping when asked a basic question about chemistry and seen far more who do an absolutely minimal amount of work and dole out high grades to keep students content. All of these teachers either still continue to teach or retired safely.

Much worse than these individual examples is a chronic problem that afflicts the system as a whole: There is no motivation to be good.

Who or what is to blame for this state of affairs? It is the gigantic and ridiculous 165-page UFT contract, which is relentlessly defended by union leaders. The contract expired Saturday; negotiations are underway to replace it.

To truly serve the students, Mayor Bloomberg - or, Mayor Thompson, if that's who the voters choose on Tuesday - must rip it up and start over.

...Study after study has found that quality instruction is the difference-maker. Eric Hanushek, a Stanford economist, found that students of bad teachers learned half as much as those taught by average teachers, while those taught by excellent teachers learned about 75% more.

The teachers' contract makes a mockery of these findings.

The contract mentions only two year-end ratings for a teacher: Satisfactory and Unsatisfactory. No other ranking is covered and thus allowed for. And because of the way the system works, almost everyone gets rated Satisfactory.

An assistant principal once told me that she got in trouble with the union for suggesting that the principal rate a teacher Excellent. "No such rating," said the union rep. And the procedure for removing a bad teacher is still exhaustingly complex - 25 mind-numbing pages on incompetence and teacher grievances.

If we're going to deliver high-quality teaching to all students, the power of the UFT, as enforced through its contract, must be broken.

We must insist that a new contract contain three key provisions. The contract must allow administrators to fire bad teachers, give them the power to hire any teacher they want, and give administrators flexibility in setting the pay of their teachers.

These demands, so basic for any employer in any private industry, would be furiously resisted by the UFT. But don't we owe it to the kids of New York City to promote good teaching above all else?

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Monday, November 2, 2009

Opinion It's time to tear up the teachers' contract that protects mediocre educators, dooms kids to failure

It's time to tear up the teachers' contract that protects mediocre educators, dooms kids to failure

BY Matt Polazzo

www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/11/01/2009-11-01_its_time_to_tear_up_the_teachers_contract_that_protects_mediocre_educators_dooms.html

Originally Published:Saturday, October 31st 2009, 11:05 PM
Updated: Monday, November 2nd 2009, 1:04 PM

Now that the summer has passed, the radiators in my classroom have rattled to life, overheating the room. Even hotter is the buzz about what to do with teachers who get paid for staying outside the classroom.

The controversy was stirred up by Stephen Brill's article "The Rubber Room," featured in the Aug. 31 New Yorker. It shows the incredible lengths the United Federation of Teachers has gone to protect bad teachers.

Teachers accused of offenses are forced into "rubber rooms" where they fight over chairs and play cards for six hours and 50 minutes a day.

On top of that, a giant pool of educators who have lost their jobs due to budget cuts and incompetence are paid full salaries not to teach - and this separate reserve pool contains over 1,100 members.

None of this comes as a surprise to me.

In fact, I know two of the teachers in the Brill article. But the real shocker…