New York’s highest court last week reversed three lower-court rulings that had reinstated bad-apple teachers fired by the city Department of Education. Consider it one small step toward ending a huge injustice.
For good measure, the Court of Appeals awarded legal costs to the DOE and slapped the Manhattan appellate jurists for “judicial overreach in school discipline cases.”
This should reduce the court’s second-guessing of DOE firing decisions, but it remains insanely hard to fire incompetent and even dangerous teachers.
The termination penalties, the high court ruled, “are not irrational and do not shock the conscience.” That affirms decades-old precedent that judges defer to DOE’s decision-making in all but extreme cases.
And each axing was plainly warranted:
- One Bronx teacher had encouraged students to cheat on a state English test.
- A Queens educator abandoned a special-needs student after Hurricane Sandy and submitted false time sheets.
- A Brooklyn gym teacher pestered female students for dates with their hot relatives.
Sadly, the court can’t do much about the vast wave of job protections, including tenure and a ridiculous arbitration process, that protect even the worst apples.
But at least it’s a start.
