Teacher convention con

This time each year virtually 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 belong to the American Federation of Teachers, a competing teachers’ union. Why do these teachers need that time off?
Professional training is important. 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.
How about shifting the convention to the summer? Or requiring that those who take the day off actually attend the convention?
http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2007/11/teacher_convention_con.html