The state of education funding: thousands of teachers paid to do nothing

Art teacher Judith Cohen, paid for not teaching (AP/Cohen)

Judith Cohen is an art teacher in the New York City school system. Three years ago, Cohen was charged with using abusive language when one of her students cut her with scissors. 

As a result, school officials “banished” Cohen to off-campus office space – what the city calls temporary reassignment centers – where she now spends her days painting watercolor portraits of fellow teachers while still receiving her annual salary.

Cohen is just one of more than 700 New York teachers receiving full pay while awaiting the results of disciplinary hearings for infractions that range from lying to sexual misconduct to ‘allowing a child to wear a hat in a classroom.’

According to city officials, teachers are sent to reassignment centers – called ‘rubber rooms’ by the educators and their union - because their union contracts require they be allowed to continue in their jobs while their cases are being heard.

“It is extremely difficult to fire a tenured teacher because of the protections afforded to them in their contract,” New York school spokeswoman Ann Forte told the Associated Press.

Once ‘banished’ from the classroom, teachers spend their days playing scrabble, doing yoga or planning their vacations. Teachers are not only paid their full salary – most earn $70,000 per year or more - they also continue to follow the school calendar for weekends, holidays and the summer break.
 
City officials told the AP the contract does not permit teachers to be given other work.

Teacher David Suker, accused of throwing away a student’s test sign-in sheet during an argument, has spent the past three months in a Brooklyn reassignment center.

“It’s sort of peaceful knowing that you’re going to work to do nothing,” Suker told the AP.

Suker’s three months in the rubber room pales in comparison to time served by other teachers. Since the cases are heard by just 23 arbitrators who work only five days a month, some teachers spend two or three years in the reassignment centers. Others have been there for five years or more.

“No one wants teachers who don’t belong in the classroom,” Ron Davis, spokesperson for the United Federation of Teachers, told the Associated Press. “However, we cannot neglect the teachers’ rights to due process.”

New York is not alone in paying teachers not to teach. The Los Angles district has nearly 200 teachers assigned to ‘rubber rooms’ and the city of Philadelphia sends teachers awaiting disciplinary action to what officials call “cluster offices.”

“They just sit you in a room in a hard chair,” Mary Shapiro, a retired Philly teacher told the AP. “And you just sit.”

Karen Horwitz, founder of the National Association for Teacher Abuse, said educators awaiting disciplinary hearings are typically sent home – with or without pay. She also said some school districts find non-classroom work for teachers’ accused of misconduct.

Once their hearings are over, the teachers are either sent back to the classroom or fired.

Judith Cohen’s hearing took place two months ago.

“I’m awaiting a decision from my hearing,” Cohen told the AP. “It was over on April 29… and here I sit, waiting, and waiting and waiting…”

According to the Associated Press, the New York City Department of Education estimates the practice of the ‘rubber rooms’ costs taxpayers $65 million a year.