Teacher Retirements Up 10% In New York

The "Burn and Churn" education policies of Barack Obama, Andrew Cuomo, et al. are succeeding at what they're meant to do - push teachers out:

ALBANY – Teacher retirements in New York have increased 10 percent since 2010, while active staff members have fallen 5.5 percent over the same time period, state records show.

The rise in retirements among the state’s teacher ranks is an ongoing trend as staff reaches retirement age, faces new testing standards and cashes out pensions.

The number of teachers in retirement jumped from 141,716 to 155,931 between the 2009-10 and 2013-14 school years, records from the state Teachers Retirement System show. At the same time, the number of active members in the system fell from 285,774 to 270,039.

The state’s teachers union, New York State United Teachers, blamed new testing standards and tougher teacher evaluations are part of the reason why teachers are leaving the workforce. The union has blasted the new measures.

...

The union estimates that more retirements are ahead. Last school year, about 13 percent of teachers were aged 57 to 64, and 19 percent of teachers were aged 49 to 56. Korn said that about 1 in 7 teachers has more than 25 years of classroom experience.

Nearly every teacher I know in the last two years who retired blamed the insane compliance measures - the Endless Testing regime, the Endless Danielson observations, the gutting of work protections for teachers that has put more power into the hands of administrators, the lack of respect for teachers and teaching in society in general that has helped bring about these changes.

Education reform, at bottom, has always been about streamlining the labor force in order to make the privatization of the education system more profitable for the neo-liberals.

So far, the plan is going swimmingly.

Of course, so many retiring teachers means pension payouts, something else that saddens neoliberals.

You can bet that will be a "reform" we see pushed in New York State before too long.