Equity and Transparency for New York City Schools
By Camille Artemus
Public school parents across New York City are angry, frustrated and fed up because we see an ongoing injustice — the best teachers are sent to the wealthier neighborhoods and the low performing ones come to neighborhoods like mine in Bed-Stuy. We call for action from City Hall, but after all the promises this Mayor made to fight inequity and bridge the tale of two cities, it’s the most vulnerable kids who still suffer. The latest injustice is the City’s attempt to reduce spending by sending ineffective teachers stuck on the City payroll into low-income classrooms. Parents are demanding details and we’re demanding action, but our calls are falling on deaf ears.
My daughter is an example of who is harmed by Mayor de Blasio’s policies. She’s smart and hardworking, but she hates school because she’s had a parade of ineffective teachers come in and out of her classroom each year. She’s a 6th grader in a Gifted & Talented class and has so much potential, but the inconsistent quality in her teachers has meant both that I’ve had to switch her school three times and that she loses precious learning time. I’m growing increasingly fearful that she will lose motivation and be unprepared for college.
For parents like me, the reality is that we don’t know from year-to-year if our children will have a quality teacher leading the class. Teaching positions in low-income communities are considered hard-to-fill, so a lot of the time, our kids end up with hard-to-place teachers.
In the past, a lot of these teachers have come from the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR). The ATR pool is what the City calls the more than 1,000 teachers who are not assigned to a classroom. Some of these teachers lost positions because their school lost enrollment, but most of the teachers who stay in the ATR pool for an extended time are ineffective teachers who either are happy to collect a paycheck without looking for a new job, or can’t get one because no principal will hire them. The City has been spending over $100 million in salaries each year for teachers who are not in the classroom.
We can all agree that it’s a total waste of money, but the bigger problem is how Mayor de Blasio is trying to address the issue. Instead of fighting to protect kids from ineffective teachers, the Mayor is focused on protecting the jobs of ineffective teachers. Why is the Mayor fighting so hard to protect teachers that no principal wants in their school? Is it because the teachers union gave $350,000 to the Mayor’s political committee when their contract was being negotiated? That’s a lot of money, even for a special interest.
We deserve a straight answer to a simple question — is the person teaching my child an effective teacher?
Two years into the Mayor’s administration, parents don’t have any information about what’s really going on with the ATR pool. The Mayor refuses to come clean and make sure the schools that need quality teachers get them and not the leftovers.
Parents in our community deserve a straight answer on what’s happening with teachers in the ATR pool. We deserve a straight answer to a simple question — is the person teaching my child an effective teacher?
I am going to stand up and fight for my child no matter what. I am going to keep speaking up for my daughter, and I am going to fight to keep her school and her teachers accountable. And I know I am not alone.
Parents in communities like mine are demanding answers, and I encourage you to join our effort. Sign our petition at www.deservedetails.org and tell the Mayor that we deserve to know who is teaching our children.
Camille Artemus is a public school parent in Brooklyn and a parent advocate with StudentsFirstNY.
