New York laws make it so hard to fire bad instructors that a whopping 61% of city teachers convicted of wrongdoing and targeted for dismissal were returned to their classroom jobs, a new report says.
The analysis of attempted teacher dismissal cases from 1997 to 2007 by the Washington, D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute tracked teachers found guilty of incompetent teaching, excessive absence, verbal abuse or corporal punishment.
Over that decade, a total of just 61 teachers – averaging six of New York City’s 78,000 teachers per year, or 0.008% of the city’s annual teaching force – were dismissed for poor performance, the analysis by the conservative think tank found.
“While teachers are legally entitled to due process to protect them from unfair dismissal and unjustifiable accusations of inadequate performance, the current system goes far beyond that, prioritizing the rehabilitation of ineffective teachers over ensuring adequate teaching for children,” the report says.
New York State teacher tenure laws and job protections are the target of two pending lawsuits launched earlier this year after a similar suit in California resulted in that state’s tenure laws being declared illegal.
Union officials and supporters of the job protections have said the laws help attract good teachers and keep them working in the public schools.
