A story by Susan Edelman in the New York Post is getting traction with news outlets and their readers, because of the issues at stake involving millions of dollars of waste in New York’s notorious Department of Education.

You may have previously heard about the infamous “rubber rooms” to which teachers were assigned pending resolution of cases, in which the teachers were accused of some infraction, ranging from teacher incompetence to alleged child abuse. Here is a video about those rubber rooms which have now been closed.

Despite the closing of rubber rooms, however, and claims by officials that hundreds of cases that were pending, have been resolved, the story in the NY Post contends that teachers continue to be “reassigned.” Essentially there are no more rubber rooms, but teachers are still being assigned to do menial tasks, to do nothing, or to do clerical or secretarial functions.

The NY Post Edelman story makes a case in point about Alan Rosenfeld, who, by the way, could have retired already, “…continues to collect a $100,049 a year salary plus health benefits, a growing pension nest egg, vacation, and sick pay…” (see EDELMAN)

Edelman makes the case about New York tax payer money waste:

“Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo can call for better teacher evaluations until they’re blue-faced, but Rosenfeld and six peers with similar gigs costing about $650,000 a year in total salaries are untouchable. Under a system shackled by protections for tenured teachers, they can’t be fired, the DOE says….”

The key phrase in that quote is “Under a system shackled by protections for tenured teachers, they can’t be fired, the DOE, says.”

Admittedly some progress has been made. Joe Coscarelli’s article in The Village Voice explains:

“The Department of Education recently returned 474 local teachers to the classroom in an attempt to rid New York City of the infamous “rubber room” sitters, in which educators accused of misconduct sit around and do nothing while collecting a full paycheck. The New York Post reports today that 159 disciplined teachers paid fines — some as high as $15,000 — to get back to work. Some were still ordered to training or to be tested for alcohol and drugs, but many just handled something “like a parking ticket,” with the average charge coming to $7,500.”

But this “progress” was apparently made after exposes brought to light the waste and alleged injustices, and corresponding outrage and activism forced administrative action by state officials.

Still the problem continues.

Taxpayers continue to pay for, not just alleged incompetence by teachers, but for the blatant pretended resolution of the problem of a racket of convenience and easy money, brokered between Government and a Teacher’s Union, a mix that provides a recipe for continued corruption, and politics as ususal that is emblematic of a system that will continue to foster corruption, until tax payers take it upon themselves to intervene en masse to effect change, and restore control to the people that system is supposed to serve.

Vanguard of Freedom Network / Patriot Action Network / Liberty News Network