The Education Wars II

Good luck to those teachers gutsy enough to take on Bloomberg/Klein and the infamous rubber rooms, which should be outlawed:

Some 2000 schoolteachers say New York City is discriminating against them by confining them on trumped-up charges in infamous "rubber rooms" until they retire. Rubber rooms are study hall-like places where teachers are paid full wages to do nothing -- sometime for years.

The class of tenured teachers claims School Chancellor Joel Klein is following Mayor Michael Bloomberg's orders: to abolish the public schools' tenure system by firing tenured teachers or forcing them to quit by making their work life unbearable.

Mayor Bloomberg took administrative control of the city's public schools in 2002. The named plaintiffs - Marie Anne Thomas, Leverett Holmes, Josefina Cruz, Brian Salazar, David Pakter and Paul Santucci - all were brought up on disciplinary charges after Bloomberg took over the schools.

They say Chancellor Klein had no educational experience when he was appointed, and was given the job with a directive to abolish the public school's system of tenure, and to either fire tenured teachers or force them to quit by making their work life unbearable.