UFT, DOE in New Battle Over Unused Teachers; Question Continued Hiring
By DAVID SIMS
The city will pay an estimated $74 million to Teachers without job assignments over the next year, according to a new report, something United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten blames on the Department of Education for hiring too many new instructors.

The Chief-Leader/Adrienne Haywood-James 'WHAT IS DOE THINKING?': United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten questions why the Department of Education has continued hiring new Teachers when close to 1,000 veteran instructors are languishing in the Absent Teacher Reserve awaiting classroom assignments. Looking on are, from left, ATR members David Hedges, Susan Murren-Azad, Claudia Bienenfeld and Ana Torres.

In an open letter to Ms. Weingarten and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, Timothy Daly, president of the New Teacher Project that issued the report, calls on the UFT and the DOE "to demonstrate leadership by addressing the problem" of excessed Teachers, nearly 1,000 of whom the report claims "will go without full-time positions for the entire 2008-2009 school year."

Claims Group Fronting for DOE

The report focused on the Absent Teacher Reserve, and followed up the group's April findings. Teachers who lose their jobs due to a school being closed or a program being downsized are placed in the ATR, where they are kept on full salary but usually only do part-time substitute work as they look for new jobs.

"There they go again," Ms. Weingarten said Sept. 24 as she referred to the New Teacher Project as "a wholly owned subsidiary of the DOE" in a statement. The UFT leader hammered the DOE for its hiring of new Teachers despite "school closings and budget cuts," and said that the Project should have "pointed out how irresponsible it was for the DOE to bring thousands of novices into a teacher market where the supply already far outstripped the demand."

Subsequently Ms. Weingarten issued a public letter to Mr. Klein "in the spirit of community and collaboration," calling for an "immediate hiring freeze ... at the school and district level for any license areas where there are people in excess and available for employment." The letter also recommended that all Teachers in the Reserve be redeployed into job vacancies as they arise. She said that these measures would "help the [DOE] recognize immediate cost savings" in light of budget cuts.

'DOE Exacerbated Problem'

In her first statement, Ms. Weingarten said that when the mutual consent staffing policies were agreed upon with the DOE in 2005, the UFT warned of increased excessing unless Principals were encouraged to hire from the Absent Teacher Reserve. "[The DOE] told us not to worry," she said, "and they agreed to the job security provisions as a condition of ending all forced placements." She alleges that the upshot was the DOE's continued policy of hiring from outside the current pool of Teachers, which "has exacerbated this situation."

In the report, Mr. Daly alleged that "excessed Teachers who do not secure new positions are six times more likely than other city Teachers to have a documented history of poor performance and are less likely to engage in an aggressive job search."

Ms. Weingarten called that claim "baseless," and countered that the report was "opting to bash the UFT because we pointed out errors in their first report — errors they just repeat here."

Mr. Daly's solution, as suggested in his letter, is to "put reasonable limits on how long excessed Teachers may earn a salary without occupying a full-time job." The report suggests a one-year period in which excessed Teachers can look for a job, after which they are placed on unpaid leave, returning to their full salary if they can find a job after that. Ms. Weingarten said it was ridiculous for the New Teacher Project to demand such reform after "[assisting] the DOE in hiring so many new Teachers this summer."

'Give Principals Incentives'

Although Ms. Weingarten did not deny the financial claims of the report, which estimated that the city had spend $81 million since 2006 on the 665 Teachers who have been unable to get out of the Absent Teacher Reserve, she suggested that the DOE "could offer incentives for principals to hire ATR Teachers, but ... stubbornly [refuses] to do so." In his letter, Mr. Daly recommends the same financial incentives for Principals.

Mr. Daly also offered sympathy for the plight of the excessed Teachers, saying that they "have broken no rules" and that "the vast majority are dedicated educators who want to work." Mr. Weingarten agreed that the ATRs "have been displaced through no fault of their own," but added that the DOE is "ignoring its own actions in creating the situation and seeking to unravel the job security clause."

A day after she lambasted the report, Ms. Weingarten called a press conference to highlight the plight of ATRs, saying "this is an issue that I am steaming about." She reiterated that "by using ATR Teachers to fill vacancies in the way we are proposing — particularly during this period of fiscal uncertainty — millions of dollars can be saved and thousands of kids can be served."

Klein: 'Won't Force Schools'

Mr. Klein issued a letter of response during the press conference, standing firm that the DOE "will not alter our policy on forced placement of Teachers," and saying that forcing Teachers to move from the ATR into schools "is not the answer" to the excessing problem. "A return to this discredited practice ... would, once more, require schools to accept teachers regardless of whether principals and faculty believe they are the best candidates or good fits for positions," he wrote.

Ms. Weingarten seemed unimpressed by the response, however. "The Chancellor, today, in a conservation I had with him, asked me if we were asking for a return to the pre-2005 situation. And I said absolutely not," she said. "That is not what we're doing." Later, she added, "We may have to go back to the regular civil service system ... but we believe that there should be mutual consent, with this job-security clause."

ATR Teachers at the press conference said that they had applied to 40 or more schools and had received almost no interviews, feeling shut out because the Principals were unwilling to pay a higher premium for more-experienced Teachers. "I want to teach and I love to teach, but I have been pushed away," said Lawrence Teller, a Social Studies Teacher with eight years of experience. "The best person for the job has been kicked out of the classroom because the [DOE] wants to hire cheaper Teachers."

Ms. Weingarten noted that some Principals keep Teachers in the ATR even while employing them full-time because it means their salary doesn't come out of the school's budget. "If a Principal is benefiting from an ATR Teacher paid for by the DOE, the Principal has no incentive to hire that Teacher," she said. "So the ATR pool will continue to grow as long as the DOE continues the status quo."