Opinion

Walcott dangles a bribe

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott’s plans for dealing with ineffective teachers, announced Thursday, won’t change education here much — but they sure show the kind of hammerlock the teachers union has on city schools.

Walcott found himself reduced to offering bribes — of yet-unknown amounts — to hundreds of burnt-out or otherwise useless teachers, just to get them to go away.

That’s how hard it is to shed bad teachers in New York.

For nearly a year, the city’s been struggling to get the United Federation of Teachers to finalize a teacher-evaluation deal. An agreement could give school brass added leverage to simply (hold your ears) fire the losers. In that case, buyouts wouldn’t be needed.

But the prospects for that are slim, given the union’s intransigence. So Walcott’s had to resort to bribes for most of the 831 folks in the Absent Teacher Reserve, which includes teachers who have been yanked from classrooms and now get paid just to sit around. Theoretically, the buyouts could save money in the long term.

And help address an utter obscenity: As the chancellor notes, at a time “when unemployment is still high and budgets are tight,” the city is spending millions “on teachers who aren’t interested in teaching.”

Again, such a measure (which will cost plenty itself) shouldn’t even be necessary.

Walcott also outlined plans to force out any teachers who have received “unsatisfactory” ratings two years in a row and to see that no child is forced to spend two straight years with unsatisfactory teachers.

Alas, just 3 percent of teachers get a “U” rating in any given year.

It’s yet another obscenity; after all, with student-achievement levels so low, you’d think far more teachers would be held accountable.

In any event, it suggests that Walcott’s plans won’t affect many students. Nor will his buyouts — which, by the way, would still need the union’s blessing.

“We’re going to negotiate it with our union partner,” a city official told The Post.

Of course, that would be the same “partner” the city can’t even get to the table on that teacher-evaluation deal.

Speaking of which, the UFT had supposedly agreed to a new system proposed by Gov. Cuomo back in February. Yet (as we predicted it would back then) the union is using the wiggle room it got — in the form of veto power over any final deal — to avoid or try to weaken all attempts to impose real accountability.

Meanwhile, the clock, as Walcott notes, is ticking for the coming school year.

You’ve sure got to feel sorry for Walcott & Co. — not to mention the kids.