NEW YORK – As if public schools don’t already have enough financial problems.

The New York Daily News reports that thousands of New York City teachers are used every year to grade state-mandated English and math exams taken by their students.

Schools officials are faced with two choices – they can send teachers to help do the grading work and hire substitutes for 11 days, or pay $250 per teacher per day to keep them in their classrooms, according to the news report.

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The fee revenue is used to hire replacement scorers, the news report said.

Earlier this month, 846 schools sent teachers to help grade English exams, while 278 schools spent a collective total of $830,000 to keep their teachers home, the news report said. The report did not say whether the program extends to schools throughout New York State, or if it only occurs in the city.

Either way, it’s a terribly expensive burden for schools that have struggled in recent years to make ends meet and preserve student programs. It’s also an academic setback for children to have substitutes in their classrooms for so many days.

As Principal Melessa Avery of P.S. 273 in Brooklyn said, “I didn’t have the manpower to do it. Every position at my school is dedicated to the serious goal of helping kids. Even the teacher I sent, I needed.”

If the state wants to make these schools administer these tests, the state should hire the personnel necessary to score the tests and bear the burden of the cost.

It’s counterproductive to force struggling public schools to take on this very expensive, highly inconvenient task.