Amid Hiring Freeze, (New York City) Principals Leave Jobs Empty

New York Times ^ | August 28, 2009 | Jennifer Medina

[reaganaut1]

Less than two weeks before the start of school, about 1,800 teaching jobs in New York City remain open as principals appear to be resisting orders to fill vacancies with teachers whose previous positions were eliminated.

Facing steep budget cuts, the Education Department enacted a hiring freeze in the spring, requiring principals with openings to hire teachers who are already on the city’s payroll but who have no permanent position, often because their schools were closed for poor performance.

But many principals prefer new teachers. So in an act of quiet defiance, they are allowing jobs to sit vacant, leading to one of the most difficult hiring seasons in recent history despite the large number of vacancies and the thousands of candidates who could fill them.

Teachers who lost their old posts are frustrated about the scarcity of job offers. New teachers who cannot get hired are furious after upending their lives to begin careers they must now delay. And principals are upset that after years of choosing their work force, their options are being drastically limited.

“The picture out there is not pretty,” said Jemina R. Bernard, who directs the New York office of Teach for America, which recruits recent college graduates to teach in low-performing schools. Fewer than half of the recruits this year have landed jobs in city schools; by this time last year, 90 percent had.

The openings represent about 2 percent of the city’s teaching payroll, and officials expect that some will be filled before Sept. 9, the first day of school. But a number of schools may end up with larger classes or have to temporarily stop offering a subject.

[reaganaut1]

A school won't do well if the principal is forced to hire teachers he thinks are poor. Public schools are largely run for the benefit of the teachers unions.

[tommyboy]

The money shot:

So many of the older teachers, who were guaranteed full salaries and benefits, wound up in the so-called absent teacher reserve pool, usually working as substitutes. There are now 1,983 teachers in the pool, earning more than $200 million a year in pay and benefits

[fieldmarshaldj]

"Public schools are largely entirely run for the benefit of the teachers unions."

Fixed that.

[LibFreeOrDie]

The principals don’t want to hire the dreck from the “Rubber Rooms.”

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/31/090831fa_fact_brill?yrail

[CGTRWK]

There are now 1,983 teachers in the pool, earning more than $200 million a year in pay and benefits.

Glorified babysitters pulling six figures.