At the end of last month, the New York City teachers’ contract expired, opening the door to a series of negotiations between the teachers’ union and the city’s department of education, led by chancellor Joel Klein. But more than a week into negotiations over the new contract, the talks are ominously quiet.

Though Klein has talked tough on the unions, whether he will actually get concessions on issues like tenure, merit-based pay, and what’s known as the “absent teacher reserve” pool will soon be determined. That last point, in particular, reached a boiling point this past summer when the Department of Education instituted a hiring freeze that excluded talented new hires from getting teaching jobs–showing how necessary it is for the new contract to handle the ATR in a satisfactory way.