In Camden, New Jersey, union teachers are racking up more sick days than the students they teach and putting a heavy strain on cash-strapped school budgets, according to local news reports.
The problem is made possible by teachers union contracts with copious sick day allowances (typically a dozen days off in an 187-day school year) and compounded by the steady need for substitutes to fill teacher vacancies. The problem is expected to cost Camden schools $2 million this year alone.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average teacher absenteeism rate was nearly double the national average for all private sector employees in 2008, Camden’s Courier-Post reported.
Researchers at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education have documented the correlation between teacher absenteeism and student success, according to Raegen Miller, lead author of one recent study.
“Teacher absences are causing the reduced achievement,” Miller told the Courier-Post. “If there is plenty of leave available, teachers will take lots of it.”
Some teachers in Camden have defended the days off, and compared their class assignment to war.
“If you feel like you’re in a combat zone or under a lot of pressure, or you’re covering others for a lack of substitutes, it kind of wears on you,” Camden teacher Karen Borrelli told the Courier-Post.
We’re sure U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan can sympathize with the teachers, Karen. But we doubt public school conditions are comparable to the situation in Kabul.
It’s interesting that, like the teaching profession, soldiers chose their career path, yet the public rarely hears a peep from them regarding their lack of sick days.
The sick day problem is bigger than Camden. We at EAGF recently studied a sampling of Michigan teachers union contracts that revealed similar excesses in our home state. In most school districts we reviewed, teachers were granted around a dozen days off per 187-day school year, and can cash out unused days when they leave the district.
In Michigan’s Rochester School District, for example, the district currently owes its teachers $732,032 for those unused sick days. In Ypsilanti, the district spent $449,104 for substitutes last year.
While the financial cost on taxpayers for excess sick days is staggering, we feel it’s relatively small compared to what it could cost our country down the road. How can we expect to produce educated future leaders if teachers don’t show up for class?
Something needs to be done to stop the bleeding. We believe it starts with the teachers, and the contracts that govern their employment. As citizens and taxpayers, we need to demand local school boards negotiate contracts that will keep teachers in front of students.
If we ignore the problem, it could cost us far more than money.