A Rotten-Teacher Fiasco

Good news: Team de Blasio has sent only 41 of 400 teachers from its Absent Teacher Reserve into city classrooms. Bad news: As predicted, the 41 went disproportionately to struggling schools. In October, Chancellor Carmen Fariña said as many as 400 ATR teachers, who cost a fortune and do little to no real work, would be sent to fill vacancies across the city, whether principals liked it or not. Yet apparently, many of those principals managed to fend off the undesired teachers.

That’s good news for kids: About a third of these teachers face legal or disciplinary issues, and 12 percent have been rated ineffective or unsatisfactory. Why foist them on kids, and on principals who don’t want them? As a principal herself years back, even Fariña refused to hire ATR teachers.

Alas, those who did find new homes, an analysis by the Education Trust-New York shows, found them in schools that serve high-need students and/or have poor performance records, including one of Mayor de Blasio’s own failing Renewal schools. That’s because well-performing schools generally have few vacancies.

Yet struggling schools need the city’s best teachers, not those principals don’t want.

Schools are right to resist Fariña’s bid to force teachers on them; they want the best for the kids. Their resistance is strong grounds for Fariña to rethink her policy.

So, too, is the fact that struggling schools will now be disproportionately saddled with teachers no one really wants.

Sure, it’s nuts to keep paying teachers who spend their time twisting paper clips instead of teaching. But the right answer is to fire them, not foist them on schools that don’t want them — and on their students.

Alas, that would spark a fight with the union that protects lousy teachers. Fariña and de Blasio would rather stiff the kids.