-By Warner Todd Huston
And for another perfect example of why teachers unions is antithetical to the welfare of the kids AND the budget of the state, we have a union that has forced the State of New York to spend $81 million dollars to pay teachers NOT to teach!
The New York Times gives us the wasteful tale of money paid for NO work.
The New Teacher Project, which estimates that the city has been paying $81 million over two years in salaries and benefits for teachers who have not been able to find permanent jobs.
Under the new free-market system, teachers who lose their jobs because of budget cuts, program curtailments or school closings are supposed to go into a reserve pool for a short time before they are hired elsewhere in the system. An overwhelming majority of more than 2,700 teachers sent into the pool in 2006 did just that.
So, these teachers are paid even if they don’t work?
This is the ultimate union job. Get paid a high salary, free health care, pension…. but not have to work AT ALL!
It doesn’t seem to occur to anyone that the solution is to fire teachers that you have no job for?
Apparently not.
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston