Letters to the Editor
New transfer policy unfair to senior teachers
Jan 17, 2008 12:57 PM
To the Editor:
Re: “More members use new right to transfer” [Sept. 20]: Maybe more members of the UFT are “settling into new classrooms” but how many of them are at the top of the seniority list? You state that more people in “all seniority categories” received transfers but it is clearly the newer members of the teaching force who have benefitted the most.
In 2005, under the old plan, nearly 25 percent of the transfers (110 out of 431) went to teachers with 16-20 years seniority. That percentage dropped to an abysmal 6 percent for both 2006 and 2007.
Yes, the number of transfers went up each year, to 160 and 211 respectively from 110, but when compared to the total number of transfers granted, senior teachers fared much worse than in the past. You have no numbers for members with 20-plus years at all. Why is that? My guess is they were too pitiful to print.
Edna Hammer Schiffres, IS 61, Staten Island
EDITOR’S NOTE: The percentage of senior teachers who transferred under the new plan is not relevant because the new plan simply allowed a great many other teachers to transfer who would not have been able to under the previous plan. At the same time it did not prevent senior teachers from transferring — and many more of them did.
