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Tuesday, July 7, 2020

NYC Educator: Chalkbeat Gets It Wrong Again, Finds Out, and Can't Be Bothered Making a Correction

NYC Educator: Chalkbeat Gets It Wrong Again, Finds Out, and Can't Be Bothered Making a Correction

Chalkbeat Gets It Wrong Again, Finds Out, and Can't Be Bothered Making a Correction


Chalkbeat wrote a long piece about the education budget. I was planning to read the whole thing, but had to stop. actually sent a message to a Chalkbeat reporter over this passage:


There is a freeze on new hires within the education department, but schools will be able to hire from the Absent Teacher Reserve, a controversial pool of educators who remain on the city payroll but do not have permanent positions because they face disciplinary action, or because their schools closed or lost enrollment. 

Here's the message I sent the reporter:



Shouldn't "face" be in past tense? Anyone facing disciplinary action is usually reassigned, but never to the ATR.

I got no response. Evidently Chalkbeat has no issue trashing working teachers who don't belong to E4E or work in Moskowitz Academies. They are "a controversial pool of educators." What the hell does that mean? It doesn't sound particularly good to me. Would you want to invite a controversial pool of educators over to your house for spaghetti? I wouldn't.

There are several ways to get into the ATR. One is to have your school closed. The staff is scattered to the four winds until and unless they find jobs. It's hard for them to do that, because publications like Chalkbeat stereotype them, and have been doing so for years. I recall an article there where some teacher or other said she and her principal were horrified at their quality. And that, my friends, is a stereotype. It may or may not have been true what the young teacher and her principal saw, but it in no way represents the CONTINUE READING: 
NYC Educator: Chalkbeat Gets It Wrong Again, Finds Out, and Can't Be Bothered Making a Correction