Back in 2005, the UFT under President Randi Weingarten negotiated the worst contract in NYC education history by giving up seniority transfer and Civil Service protected bumping rights. By doing so, it allowed the DOE to impose school based Fair Student Funding (fsf). The result was that it incentivized principals to hire "the cheapest and not the best teachers" for their school. Consequently, student academic achievement suffered due to the influx ofcheap "newbie teachers" who lacked classroom management. curriculum expertise, and the experience to handle different student learning styles.
To fix the problem, the Mayor and Chancellor needs to eliminate school based fsf and restore District-based hiring as it was before fsf. Moreover, all vacancies must be filled by excessed teachers in their content specialty before "newbies"can be hired. This will eliminate the 1,000 strong ATR pool that drains the DOE coffers, help reduce class size, and eliminate the need for offering a $50,000 bribe to retire or resign from the DOE.
Until the Mayor and his Chancellor restores the old hiring process, the DOE will continue to pay 1,000 teachers and other educators to babysit classrooms and that's a shame.