Speaking of jaw dropping, just when I think I've heard of every outrage… (kudos to the WSJ's Barbara Martinez for this outstanding bit of reporting):

A majority of New York City teachers who lost their positions at schools earlier this year have neither applied for another job in the system nor attended any recruitment fairs in recent months, according to data released by the Department of Education Thursday.

New York is the only city in the country where teachers are guaranteed pay for life even when their school closes and they are put out of a permanent job. In Chicago, teachers get a year to find a new job. In Washington, D.C., highly rated teachers get a year or a buyout option, while low-rated teachers are dismissed.

The employment guarantee costs New York's DOE more than $100 million a year in salary and benefits for teachers who don't have permanent teaching jobs, the agency says. Those teachers go into what the DOE calls the Absent Teacher Reserve pool, where they can be called up to work in schools as substitutes or do other jobs. The DOE says the average teacher in the ATR pool earns $82,000 a year, and some make more than $100,000. Some teachers have been in the pool since 2006.

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