Posted on 11/22/2007 3:33:36 PM PST by Coleus
This time each year vir tually every school in New Jersey shuts down for at least two days so a fraction of the state's 176,735 public school teachers can go to Atlantic City for the annual New Jersey Education Association convention. This has to rank among the biggest scams perpetrated on the public. Name one other profession in which people are given time off from work for professional development but are free to go nowhere near the convention.
Yet, since 1920, state law has dictated that teachers must be permitted to attend the convention without using a personal, vacation or professional day, which means this is not something won at the bargaining table. Most school districts have responded by closing schools altogether. Because the convention often falls near Election Day and Veterans Day, some districts close schools for the entire week or four of five days.
If most teachers actually went to Atlantic City last week for this free event, which by most accounts was enriching, it would be difficult to be snarky. But that isn't what happened. On Thursday, the first day of the convention this year, 28,788 teachers attended. That's roughly 16.2 percent of the teachers who belong to the NJEA. Disrupting public education statewide for such a small percentage of teachers just doesn't make sense.
But the absurdities don't end there. Schools were closed in the three districts where educators be long to the American Federation of Teachers, a competing teachers' union. Why do these teachers need that time off? Professional training is im portant. Teachers should be given opportunities to improve their skills. What's untenable is keeping hundreds of thousands of children home, in some cases for a very unproductive week, so a handful of teachers from each school can attend the convention.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
All those parents have to find alternative day care for a week. Sad, but it's an economic opportunity for the 80%+ of union members who don't attend the convention.
Big deal. It’s all part of the annual pay package. Teachers are paid on the basis of a certain number of teaching days per year — conferences, conventions, etc. were factored in long ago. There are much, much bigger issues in education.
A very important educational reform at State level, is the forced development of teachers unions into professional organizations. In a manner of speaking, ending the unions because they worked, and because teachers are professionals.
States wanted collective bargaining, because they thought it was easy, and only wanted to pay minimum salary to teachers. However, over time, this has resulted in the perverse situation of paying teachers well, but still treating them as blue collar workers, instead of professionals.
Importantly, this change does not represent diminishing teachers in any way, but elevating them to a respected status. Its advantages are many:
1) Teachers are accredited by their professional organization, like doctors and lawyers, not by the State. Thus the professional organization determines how many teachers can teach, not just anyone who can pass a test. It sets their standards, and even limits the number who can earn a teaching degree in college.
2) Teachers pay is not determined by the school districts, and to upper and lower limits by the union, but based on the accreditation of the teacher. Thus a valuable and rare senior high school math teacher can command a much higher salary than a generic freshman English teacher. Much the same as a heart surgeon is paid more than a GP. Because fewer teachers would want to teach freshman English, and go for that specialty, its value would increase over time.
3) Teachers are no longer obligated, by State aid for students, to pass as many as students as possible. Instead they grade the students based on performance, not quotas. If a teacher fails too many students, the worst that can happen is that their curriculum is reviewed. No different than if a doctor has more than a certain number of patients die.
There are lots of other advantages to having a teachers professional organization. Advantages to the States, the school districts, the teachers, and most of all the students.
Teachers receive NO pay for the convention days. They DO NOT count toward the state minimum number of days. Teachers are only paid for student contact days.
I don’t know what’s up, but we’ve noticed this year that there was no school yesterday and probably won’t be tomorrow.....never do I remember the day before Thanksgiving being a no-school day around here.
It’s freaking New Jersey. The kids are better off wherever than at school. What do you think those clowns teach them?
You have a valid point. I know in many districts the number of school days have been increased, teachers are required to attend more meetings after school with administrators, and there is pressure to take back benefits state wide. So the convention is an interesting issue, but the current trend in NJ is to demand more, not less of teachers.
It wouldn’t matter. Conference days do not count as teacher work days, and don’t count toward the minimum class days required. Teachers must work a certain number of days to get paid. There are 2 extra class days added at another time to make up for this. Not an issue as far as I can see.
Who is surprised?
Our district didn’t have the day before Thanksgiving off. It was always a 1/2 day session.
It’s more about PS “educators” and Union hypocrisy than anything else. That makes it important.
It is an issue. It is an unnecessary break in the school schedule and 85% of the teachers do not even go.
So you are of the opinion that 2 days off during a school week causes harm to students in some way? You must have a real problem with Spring Break.
And the whole idea is that is is hypocritical and manipulative. It sets a HORRIBLE example in for kids AND for taxpayers in this cesspool of oppressive taxation.
Ask yourself this. Why is the convention not the days after the end of school or the days before the first day? Why do only 16% of teachers go?
My wife is a teacher, and she would rather die than go to one of those conventions. For her, she would rather use the time to catch up on lesson planning or grading papers. She uses these days to research new activities or teaching strategies, and generally get organized.
The week before school starts and the week after school starts are work days for the teachers. They are getting prepared for the school year, or planning for the next year. They could offer it during the summer, but there would probably still be intermittant breaks throughout the school year.
There are only a certain number of school days required. Parents and teachers in general, prefer to have the year broken up a little. Small breaks are good for the teachers and the students. I say this as a parent. I don’t know of any schools that don’t put small breaks in throughout the year, for this reason. Maybe they shouldn’t tie it specifically to the convention, but schedule the convention during a small break somewhere. That wouldn’t change much in the substance of things though.
If your wife would rather die than go, and apparently 85% of her contemporaries agree, then logically the whole con should be scraped.
Small breaks issue is a different ball of wax. It is unrelated to this issue. This issue is about a day off that is SUPPOSED to be for training to be a better teacher that 85% of teachers blow off. either they need it or they do not. If they do not they should not get the day off.
Obviously, you and I are talking about 2 different things. It was my understanding that this was not a teacher work day, but just two days off the school calendar, because if there was no school, teachers would have the option to attend the convention. I have no problem with this.
If it was a teacher work day, then the teachers would be required to attend the conference or work in their classrooms for a full day. In Georgia, teachers that do not attend on a teacher workday must use vacation or sick time, just as if they miss school on a regular class day.
I thought it was the former, you obviously think it is the latter. It makes a big difference in my opinion.
Also, in Georgia, my wife must work the week following the end of school on post-planning. These are workdays, and they are required. They have meetings about scheduling for the following year, post grades and clean up the classroom. They also have files to transfer to the next grades teachers and inventory to take.
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