This would be a tragedy on many levels. But beyond the tragedy is a scandal. The very union that has fought against all efforts to reward merit and banish mediocrity actually pulls teachers out of the classroom so they can work on union business. Some of those teachers earn sizable salaries courtesy of city taxpayers even as they collect very good salaries from the United Federation of Teachers. And it gets worse--the city has to pay for substitutes to fill in for these double-dipping teachers.

According to the Post, about 40 senior teachers earn salaries as high as $100,000 a year but spend just one period a day in the classroom. They spend most of their workday on union business, earning up to $56,000 a year. Meanwhile, hundreds of other teachers are given time during the day to attend to UFT business, which generally consists of thwarting the public good.

The city has to pay more than $9 million a year to hire substitutes for the non-teaching teachers, a sum that would help save the jobs of dozens of teachers. (The UFT, which collects more than $100 million a year in dues, writes a check for about $900,000 to reimburse this cost.)

If public-employee unions want to know why they are losing the public-relations war--in New York and elsewhere--the UFT's non-teaching teachers should be Exhibit A in how not to win over taxpayers. The UFT has every right to employ a staff dedicated to the proposition that change must be stopped, that antiquated work rules are sacrosanct and that accountability must be avoided at all costs. But taxpayers should not have to subsidize this bizarre activity.

If the union were concerned about students, it would stop taking teachers out of the classroom and work with Mr. Bloomberg to develop a more equitable approach to seemingly inevitable layoffs.

The UFT continues to be an advocate for the unacceptable status quo. And that, too, is a tragedy--and a scandal.

A suspiciously high number of students have received the minimum passing grade on the state's Regents exams in recent years, prompting city education officials to implement more rigorous auditing of test results and other indices of educational progress. It's unfortunate that such measures are necessary, but it would be even worse if the city continued to celebrate bogus achievements.

Education officials say they do not believe teachers and principals have engaged in widespread cheating, which if true is a relief. But even small-scale cheating or manipulation must be rooted out, because phony achievements, in the end, will be exposed when students enter the workforce or attempt college-level work.

That said, the audits, while necessary, should not become a witch hunt. Teachers are allowed a certain amount of latitude in scoring Regents exams, especially those that involve essays. It's hard not to sympathize with teachers who might be inclined to bump up a student by a point or two based on a competent essay in English or history.

City Hall has relied on hard data for a generation now in successive efforts to fight crime and improve the city's schools. Captains and principals are under pressure to produce measurable results, and they in turn put pressure on beat cops and teachers to make sure the numbers look good. This is called accountability, and it works.

But data must be real, and achievements genuine. Otherwise, it's all just public relations.

editorial@observer.com

Joining him for the roll-out will be teachers union head Randi Weingarten.

About two weeks ago, Thompson issued an audit saying the city’s education department underreported violent incidents at schools.

Lots more to come from him on the schools issue, I suspect.