Superintendent: Bad tenured teachers hard to fire

An English teacher in his Long Island district remains on the payroll, earning an annual salary of $113,559, even after pleading guilty earlier this month to drunken driving charges--her fifth DWI arrest in seven years.

The teacher will remain on paid leave at least until a disciplinary hearing in August, and it will be up to an impartial arbitrator to decide whether she needs to be fired as she faces a likely prison sentence.

"It is very frustrating that the process takes so long," Gerstenlauer conceded.

The case illustrates a nagging problem in school districts in New York and elsewhere around the country: firing bad teachers. It is also part of the ongoing debate over education reform and the role tenure plays in the process.

Advocates for reform cite a list of egregious examples they say demonstrate why teacher tenure rules need to be overhauled.

In New York City, it often costs taxpayers $250,000 just to fire one incompetent teacher. Some teachers remain on the payroll even after being convicted of serious felonies, requiring districts to hold disciplinary hearings behind prison walls.

"Protecting jobs of adults without regard to how well their students perform almost certainly will lead to greater costs, stagnant academic achievement, and greater dysfunction of our public education system," says tenure foe B. Jason Brooks of the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability.

Richard Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers, counters: "Tenure provides the right to due process. It is consistent with the American way; a person is innocent until proven guilty."

The issue has been gaining attention in New York.