OUTRAGE – AT 8:37 P.M. ET:  Do you want to know the kind of thing that outrages tea partiers and their allies?

Well, get this:  In New York City, once the home of the greatest urban school system in the United States – a system that produced one star after another – teachers accused of the most serious offenses have been placed in something called a "rubber room," where they do nothing for months, even years, on full salary.  Finally, this obscenity is ending.  From the New York Post:

The city’s bizarre disciplinary system that pays teachers accused of misconduct for months and years on end for doing nothing is being expelled.

Mayor Bloomberg announced a "breakthrough" agreement with the United Federation of Teachers today that's designed to clear a backlog of more than 600 cases by year’s end and shutter the eight teacher reassignment centers known as "rubber rooms" on the last day of school in June.

The deal will force most educators accused of misdeeds to work for their earnings in district offices or in non-teaching roles in schools until their cases are resolved.

Those accused of more serious sexual or financial misconduct would be sent home with pay rather than be given administrative duty, while those charged with felony offenses in criminal court would be removed from their schools without pay...

...Columnist Andrea Peyser wrote in February, "Rubber rooms have become the symbol of everything in city government that makes one's head want to explode. These oases of waste and neglect exist in all five boroughs, playing host to a whopping 660 educators who've been accused of everything from sexual abuse and stealing to incompetence."

There was a time when being a New York City teacher was an honor.  I recall stories of how teacher candidates had to go before boards of examiners.  A New York City teacher's license was a point of pride.

We still have many wonderful teachers, but the effects of unionization, begun in the early 60s, took hold, and, while the unions improved the lot of teachers, they also encouraged abuses like rubber rooms.

And we wonder why people are furious with government.

April 15