Weingarten Advocates Streamlining Firing Process

See all posts

In an overture to the schools chancellor and the mayor, New York City teachers' union president Randi Weingarten is proposing an expedited system for terminating failing teachers. Currently, teachers who are accused of malfeasance spend long stretches in "rubber rooms" where they teach no students but are still paid in full. Weingarten's plan would put these teachers into a peer intervention program for up to 90 days. If the teacher showed no signs of improvement, the union would counsel them to leave the school system. Teachers who resisted might end up in a 90-day grievance and arbitration process that could result in the termination of the teacher. It currently takes two years to dismiss a teacher.