Suspended Teachers Paid $10 Million Per Year
The Los Angeles Times published part two of its investigation today:
For seven years, the Los Angeles Unified School District has paid Matthew Kim a teaching salary of up to $68,000 per year, plus benefits.
His job is to do nothing.
Every school day, Kim’s shift begins at 7:50 a.m., with 30 minutes for lunch, and ends when the bell at his old campus rings at 3:20 p.m. He is to take off all breaks, school vacations and holidays, per a district agreement with the teacher’s union. At no time is he to be given any work by the district or show up at school.
He has never missed a paycheck.
In the jargon of the school district, Kim is being “housed” while his fitness to teach is under review. A special education teacher, he was removed from Grant High School in Van Nuys and assigned to a district office in 2002 after the school board voted to fire him for allegedly harassing teenage students and colleagues. In the meantime, the district has spent more than $2 million on him in salary and legal costs.
Last week, Kim was ordered to continue this daily routine at home. District officials said the offices for “housed” employees were becoming too crowded.
About 160 teachers and other staff sit idly in buildings scattered around the sprawling district, waiting for allegations of misconduct to be resolved.
The housed are accused, among other things, of sexual contact with students, harassment, theft or drug possession. Nearly all are being paid. All told, they collect about $10 million in salaries per year — even as the district is contemplating widespread layoffs of teachers because of a financial shortfall.
Most cases take months to adjudicate, but some take years.
Kim, 41, has persisted the longest.
He argued unsuccessfully in a lawsuit that he was the victim of disability discrimination. Born with severe cerebral palsy, he has limited use of his limbs, must use a wheelchair and requires a full-time personal aide (who is paid about $14 an hour by the district). He declined repeatedly to be interviewed, as did his attorney, Lawrence Trygstad.
Kim’s long-term stay in paid professional limbo highlights how long it can take to move through the thicket of legal protections afforded educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest.
This American Life fans may remember that program’s episode on what happens to New York City teachers who are removed from the classroom. If memory serves, it is more sympathetic to the teachers.
Unserious Conor.
The problem is simply not the depraved, demonic teachers union.
— matoko_chan · May 7, 04:22 AM · #
You’re right, they’re not “the” problem, they are a problem — or, as John pointed out elsewhere, they are an impediment to fixing some of the real problems.
— Conor Friedersdorf · May 7, 05:31 AM · #
Firing some guy with cerebral palsy, seriously that’s your solution to the crisis of education? I’m with commenter #1, this is fundamentally unserious—whether or not this is “a” problem, it’s a trivial one. And anyway, the problem seems to be more about a slow complaint-adjudication bureaucracy than any inherent flaw in the system of tenure for teachers. The sensationalist headline just underscores the dishonesty of the whole argument—as if $10 million were really such a massive sum for a large school district! The LA Unified School District’s budget was almost 20 billion dollars in 2008.
TAS seems to be falling back on hack right-wing cliches lately. I’m a leftist, so I guess I shouldn’t be expected to approve of what goes on here, but I originally started reading because with Reihan or Poulos or Suderman or Millman I felt I was dealing with thoughtful people worth taking seriously. But between this pinheaded union-bashing and P-E G’s “arbeit macht frei, let’s abolish retirement!” routine, I’m getting increasingly bummed on this blog.
— chiasmus · May 7, 05:49 AM · #
Chiasmus, I fail to see how lamenting $10 million being paid to teachers who aren’t in the classroom — because they have been suspended by their managers — qualifies as a “right wing cliche.” And I think the headline accurately and succinctly sums up the thrust of the LA Times story. But perhaps that newspaper’s editors did better: “L.A. Unified pays teachers not to teach.”
Finally, while I certainly disagree with PEG’s “let’s abolish retirement” argument, it isn’t a “right-wing cliche” either.
— Conor Friedersdorf · May 7, 10:18 AM · #
I heard Obama told his cabinet to find $100M in spending cuts or he wasn’t going to let them out for recess.
— Tony Comstock · May 7, 11:01 AM · #
If this vignette doesn’t inspire someone to rush out and make a new “Breakfast Club” for our era, our filmmakers are useless. Tony, get to work!
— Matt Frost · May 7, 12:35 PM · #
So if a teacher is accused of misconduct, should the schools stop paying him while they investigate? Should that teacher be fired or suspended prior to his guilt being proven? Perhaps without unions they could simply get rid of the teacher, stop the paychecks, etc. regardless of guilt.
Or maybe this piece – while obviously another shot at the unions – is actually making their case for them. While a teacher is accused of misconduct, and prior to any definitive judgment, they will remain employed even if suspended. Kind of like a cop who has to turn over their badge while being investigated, but still earns a paycheck.
I just don’t see what the alternative in that situation is…?
— E.D. Kain · May 7, 01:51 PM · #
I’m kind of with your commenters here, actually, Conor. Remember this happened on a worse scale at UC — some chick was paid a ton, for example, to watch TV at home and do what she wanted, so she wouldn’t sue — so I think it’s actually some kind of California public education policy or somethin’ and the LA Times hasn’t done its due diligence.
— Sanjay · May 7, 02:14 PM · #
Destroy the unions! Unravel the safety net! Those are right-wing cliches, if ever there were such a thing. Would it make you feel better to call them libertarian cliches, the better to identify your political marginality?
— chiasmus · May 10, 04:01 AM · #