by Howard Portnoy
How broken is the educational system in New York City? Broken enough that a 66-year-old teacher relegated to one of the city’s “rubber rooms” after being deemed a danger to his students refuses to leave. To add insult to injury, the teacher, Alan Rosenfeld, is still pulling down $100,049 a year in salary, plus health benefits, a growing pension, and vacation and sick pay. Oh, and he’s worth a cool $10 million.
Because there is no mandatory retirement age for teachers in New York State, the city Department of Education has no recourse but to let Rosenfeld stay as long as he likes.
And he likes. The New York Post quotes a friend of Rosenfeld as saying of his refusal to quit:
It’s an F-U. He’s happy about it, and very proud that he beat the system. This is a great show-up-but-don’t-do-anything job.
The city has only itself to blame. Rosenfeld was accused in 2001 of making lewd comments to students and ogling eighth-grade girls’ behinds. These were grounds for dismissal that even the powerful American Federation of Teachers would have had a tough time defending.
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