According to the New York Post this week, a pair of teachers in Queens stumbled upon a hush-hush booklet giving school principals legal guidance into the tricky matter of how to fire a tenured teacher. Not surprisingly, the local teachers union seized upon the discovery as a smoking gun, further evidence of the Department of Education's disingenuous attitude towards its teachers. According to UFT union president Randi Weingarten, “I’ve never seen a document that is so unbalanced, so focused on finding the worst in teachers and not even attempting to figure out how to help principals make their schools better.??? She went on to say that “[the manual]’s a perfect example of why [the current] contract talks have stalled to the brink of dying.??? Contract negotiations have remain deadlocked past the official deadline of December 1st.

We see it somewhat differently, questioning the mere efficacy of the booklet. New York, like most school districts, only ends up firing a handful of the roughly 1000 teachers recommended for dismissal each year.