Is Absent Teacher Reserve Contagious? Yes, Yes It Is - by Dr. Michael Flanagan
It was a tough place to find on a cold winter afternoon. Climbing over mountains of ice searching for a run down basement in an old church. The metal folding chairs, collapsible tables and fluorescent lights reflected the mood of those who showed for the first ever Bronx Teacher Empowerment Workshop on February 27th 2015. Even though we walked passed the boiler to get into the room people were still wearing their coats. Why were we meeting in this old church basement in the Bronx? Because New York City’s Absent Teacher Reserve initiative has turned veteran teachers into pariahs in an effort to supersede contracted rights. Referred to as ATR’s these educators have been scapegoated by the Department of Education and many have felt sacrificed by their own union. They are now castaways chalked up as the collateral damage of education reform.
Over the last ten years in New York City, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s business model of education management, teacher seniority was one of the prime targets. His administration’s agenda worked like this, large traditional community schools were labeled as failing, phased out and smaller schools were opened in their place. “Closer” principals were brought in to shut down the large schools and excess at least fifty percent of the faculty. These smaller “charter-lite” schools tended to hire newer, younger teachers over those with more seniority. In other words those with the highest salaries were finding themselves un-hirable. The DOE, because of collective bargaining protections could not terminate these teachers, but without official positions they were thrown into the Absent Teacher Reserve pool.
The recent teachers contract ratified after a contentious vote among union rank and file created a subordinate set of rights applied to ATR teachers. It was that part of the contract, which caused many of our members to vote against the promised raises and retroactive pay. A union should be there to champion the rights of the most oppressed in our ranks. One would think that the United Federation of Teachers would aggressively fight for its members who were unceremoniously cut from their positions and left to drift while having their professionalism questioned and their characters defamed. However, the plight of theBadass Teachers Association:
