New York to close teacher 'rubber rooms'

The Associated Press is reporting that New York City officials and the teacher’s union have agreed to stop putting hundreds of teachers waiting for disciplinary hearings in so-called “rubber rooms.”

The AP said that the rooms, formally called teacher-reassignment centers, will be closed this fall. The centers--which came to be known as “rubber rooms,” a reference to padded cells in mental institutions--held hundreds of teachers who spent months, or even years there, whiling away their time playing games or reading.

City education officials said that the rooms became necessary because union rules make it too hard to fire teachers, who get full pay while they await their hearings.

Some teachers sent to the room complained that they had done nothing wrong except expose principals for playing with student test scores.

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