Teachers In NYC "Rubber Rooms"

Mike Antonucci links to a great if horrifying article in the Village Voice about 662 New York City teachers who are in administrative limbo and go each day to one of 13 "administrative reassignment centers (aka "rubber rooms") pending the disposition of their cases -- and suggests that their forced inactivity could be the making of a great reality show (Rubber Rooms Could Be a Gold Mine). From what I read, the Voice piece (Class Dismissed) sounds more like a nightmarish episode of Big Brother than American Idol. Not that I ever watch those shows.

Comments

[Gloria Chavez]

According to an article appeared in March 1, 2006 in the Wall Street Journal, General Motors helped to originate so called "Rubber Rooms" under the euphemistic name of the Job Banks in 1984 and expanded the concept in 1990, "seeing it as a stopgag until times got better for the company and workers could go back to the factories."

The teachers' rubber rooms were intended for teachers under investigation of wrongdoing but in time became useful to administrators as the waiting room for what they called "failing teachers". Yet,at least 90% of teachers in the also called ROC (Reassignment Centers) are the victims of dysfunctional/vindictive administrators who want to get rid of whistleblowers and or good teachers who refuse to go along with corruption and/or violations of the law (such as passing failing students or inflating grades or closing their eyes to mispent budgets)which is rampant in the NYC school system (even more under Bloomberg-Klein administration.)
Rubber Rooms (remember 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest'?)like concentration camps or gulags are meant to break an intellectual/honest person's mind and body. Once in the Rubber Room a teacher's reputation and life are never the same.