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FEBRUARY 2005

Myth and Reality of the Teachers’ Contract

By Randi Weingarten

As the city and the teachers’ union have been trying to reach a new contract to replace the one that expired more than 1-1/2 years ago, a number of myths about the current agreement are surfacing, distractions that make it difficult to resolve the real problems of our schools.

Let me shatter a few of those myths:

Myth #1: Because of “the union” it takes forever to dismiss incompetent teachers.
Reality: Reforms negotiated in the 2002 contract cut the time it takes to adjudicate teacher discipline cases (once they are filed). Last year more than half the cases were concluded in less than three months.

The union has also proposed a program under which struggling teachers would be given help to improve, and if the assistance failed, the union would counsel them out of the profession.  The Department of Education, which made supportive noises when I announced this proposal in January, 2004, has not followed up.

Myth #2: Seniority rules permit teachers with experience to constantly move to new and easier assignments, while new teachers are concentrated in the toughest schools.
Reality: Less than 1 percent of the teaching force transferred last year under seniority rules, generally to move closer to their homes.  But the department had to find more than 7,000 teachers to replace those who retired, or left frustrated by low pay, overcrowded classes, lack of support by the system, and other tough conditions.

Nor do all new teachers end up in the toughest districts. The department’s own figures show that at the beginning of the last school year, three of the highest performing districts in the city, received 462 new teachers. Meanwhile only 375 new teachers went to three of the most struggling districts.

Myth #3: The union insists on lockstep pay with no recognition of special needs and circumstances.
Reality: This year we negotiated a project in the Bronx that gives additional compensation to “master teachers”—one the school system is now touting. The union assisted Chancellor Rudy Crew to design and create the Chancellor’s District, a special district for struggling schools where teachers worked longer hours in exchange for higher salaries. Scores in the Chancellor’s District went up dramatically, but despite national recognition as a fantastic school turnaround strategy, this successful experiment was one of the first casualties of the new administration.

Based on the success of the Chancellor’s District, the union suggested earlier this year that—simultaneously with providing competitive salaries for all New York City teachers—the system establish an Enterprise Zone where everyone willing to work at 200 selected hard-to-staff schools would receive a 15 percent differential.

The response from the Department on this suggestion? Silence.

Myth #4: “Work rules” make it impossible for schools to be managed.
Reality: Which work rules? The one that prevents the Department from cramming more than 34 students into a high school class and 28 into fourth grade? (While these limits are still too high, it is only the fact that they are in the contract that makes the Department comply.) Other “work rules” include allowing teachers to have lunch, or have a break after teaching three classes in a row.

Dealing with reality

The critical truth about our schools is that teachers here have the largest classes in the state, teach some of the most challenging students, work in overcrowded and sometimes unsafe buildings without proper equipment and supplies—and still make $10,000 to $15,000 less every year than their colleagues. Those able to retire have been doing so in droves. Nearly half of new teachers leave within six years for jobs in the suburbs or other careers.

Solving the system’s real problems means providing competitive pay and better conditions for teaching and learning in all our schools. But these are goals we can never reach as long as the city and the Chancellor continue to cling to the myths rather than reality of our schools.#

Randi Weingarten is the President, United Federation of Teachers.

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