getting paid a penny

If she hadn't been holding the check in her hand, third-grade teacher Adele Rothstein said she wouldn't have believed it - the school system had sent her a check for one cent.

Rothstein was one of perhaps thousands of teachers who benefited from this instance of city Education Department accounting. Because of a precise recalculation of the amounts withdrawn from their paychecks for Social Security, teachers and other school workers paid by the hour - known as per diem or per-session employees - received checks for as little as a penny.

"It's ludicrous," said Rothstein, who teaches at PS 162 in Bayside. "Two other people at my school also got checks for a penny. We're working in classrooms without paper, supplies, pencils, crayons, chalk - and the Department of Education is wasting the postage to send out checks for a penny. Something's wrong with this."

For work she did during the summer, Rothstein got a check for $265.10 in addition to her regular paycheck. Apparently, she was supposed to get $265.11.

"I'm an accountant, and this sort of thing drives me crazy," said Adele's husband, Howard Rothstein, who was quick to note the price of a postage stamp - 37 cents - plus whatever it costs the school system to generate the checks.

Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said the school system was obliged under Social Security regulations to send out the refunds. She didn't know how employees got refunds.

"Most of them didn't get pennies," Feinberg said. "And there should be no one without adequate supplies. That teacher should talk to her principal."

Copyright 2002 Newsday

so am I alone in saying WTF? that just shows how bad the education system in NYC is.

I got bad news for ya. The educational system sucks anywhere you go.

holy crap...

as countries go on education the US is horrible, last time i checked we were below 26th place. Hell i am sure my good old country, albania, may even have better rates. That is pretty damn bad seeing that we are a 1st world country and the last superpower

Bahahaha. School? Baahahaha.