In researching my article on “Rubber Room” teachers, who are paid not to teach after being accused of a crime, I came across some information that deserves further discussion. The problem is much worse than the media would have you believe.

The teachers in these programs are the ones who managed to escape prosecution but are considered too great a risk to be allowed to return to teaching. Or else they’re the accused waiting for judgment. Or they’re people the schools can’t get rid of due to tenure deals.

In 2004, Hofstra University professor Dr. Carol Shakeshaft published a report for the United States Department of Education titled “Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature.” It was presented to Congress as part of the No Child Left Behind Act. In it, Shakeshaft stated:

As a group, these studies present a wide range of estimates of the percentage of U.S. students subject to sexual misconduct by school staff and vary from 3.7 to 50.3 percent. Because of its carefully drawn sample and survey methodology, the AAUW report that nearly 9.6 percent of students are targets of educator sexual misconduct sometime during their school career presents the most accurate data available at this time.

According to a study she did of abuse complaints against Catholic priests over a five decade period she concluded that “…the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”

We all remember the media outrage over the Catholic priest scandals. To this day it’s a common trope in films and TV to have priests associated with child molesting. It was as if the press wanted to shut down the Catholic Church with their coverage. When you consider how anti-religious many progressive reporters are, it comes as no surprise.

But this story, involving mainly public schools, silently went away. The government, not wanting the legal nightmare that would follow, let the whole matter drop.

A story like this should have been huge, but the press had a vested interest in protecting academia. Public schools might get complained about in terms that would motivate politicians to pour more tax dollars into them. But any story that would inspire parents to pull their kids out en masse is spiked. The public institutions that statists love so much, despite their many failings, are protected. The progressive agenda trumped what should have been the story of the year.

But every action or inaction has consequences. Thanks to their deals with the unions, teachers accused of sexually molesting or harassing kids, among other things, are paid to sit by and do nothing. To the tune of $65 million a year in New York alone. And this is a state going bankrupt.

In California, just in L. A. county alone, it’s $10 million a year as of 2009. Another state on its way to bankruptcy. Of course, the lawsuits that would rain down on these schools if a scandal like the one that hit the church happened, well…the states would have even bigger problems. But then, if they were doing their job, if they didn’t have absurd deals with unions, this would all be moot.

But once again we see what the unholy alliance of government and unions brings about. Employees that can’t be fired, soaking the taxpayers for millions of dollars a year. Bureaucracies that protect and defend systems that allow for the numbers of crime you’d expect in a state of anarchy. The press is not doing its job. It certainly isn’t looking out for the people. It is defending and protecting an out of control government that is taxing the public to the extremes, wasting our money and allowing criminals to benefit.

And they’re surprised by the Tea Party movement?