Why Teachers Almost Never Get Fired

New York City officials filed disciplinary charges against 826 educators for misconduct or incompetence over the past two years—and in at least 171 cases, teachers had to pay fines to keep their jobs. As tenure protections for teachers come under scrutiny nationwide, a look at recent disciplinary cases shows that termination attempts often ended with fines because an arbitrator found the city didn't prove its complaints, administrators didn't give tenured teachers enough help to improve or the teachers deserved another chance.

New York City Department of Education data show that in cases it filed in the past two school years, arbitrators terminated 40 educators for egregious transgressions or poor performance and suspended 19. Hundreds of cases settled, often with teachers agreeing to resign or retire, and hundreds haven't been resolved.

The reasons the city seeks discipline are varied. One teacher was fined $3,000 for forging an official city logo to create a fake parking permit so he could avoid tickets near school.

Another was fined $5,000 after handing in fraudulent doctors' notes; a hearing officer sympathized with his apologetic explanation he had to skip school repeatedly for home repairs after superstorm Sandy.