Last week, New York City schools received two pieces of contradictory news, which made for an interesting contrast in how teachers are viewed.
In the first, the Department of Education will now require principals to staff vacancies with teachers from the Absent Teacher Reserve, also known as “the rubber room,” where pedagogues who have been let go from previous positions and haven’t managed to find another are paid their full salary to sit and do nothing because they cannot be fired, even in cases of misconduct or incompetence.
In the second, SUNY proposed regulations that would allow some charter schools to certify their own teachers, rather than requiring Education Master’s degrees and certification exams, the way that traditional public schools do.
The response to the latter was predictably hysterical.
But at no point were the following realities addressed:
Related: MTEL.