One of the most controversial policies that the DOE employs is school-based Fair Student Funding. The Bloomberg/Klein administration made no secret that they wanted an"education on the cheap"policy and Fair Student Funding fits perfectly into that policy.
Because of Fair Student Funding, the ATR pool exploded when Bloomberg closed 163 schools and veteran teachers could not get a position due to their salary.. Moreover, over 800 teachers, mostly veterans, were sent to the rubber room due to alleged misconduct or incompetence. Finally, many senior teachers were pressured and harassed to retire.
Before there was Fair Student Funding, teacher salaries were funded by the DOE and not the schools. Many knowledgeable Principals knew that veteran teachers were best for their students. These veteran teachers had excellent classroom management skills, deep curriculum knowledge, and best of all knew how to adjust to different scenarios. Moreover, seniority transfer allowed veteran teachers to bump untenured teachers from desirable schools and their students ended up with the best teachers.
By contrast, with school-based Fair Student Funding principals were incentivized to hire "the cheapest and not the best teachers for their school". No wonder the ATR pool is loaded with veteran teachers. In addition the Open Market is a waste of time for veteran teachers who want to change schools because of Fair Student Funding.
Until Chancellor Richard Carranza eliminates Fair Student Funding, l don't look for changes in the discriminatory school hiring practices that only hurt student academic performance..