North Dakota School Kids Off For Teachers’ Convention

• October 19, 2006

According to the Minot Public Schools website all K-12 students in North Dakota will be getting today and tomorrow off so that teachers can the NDEA convention.
Back when I was in school I always just assumed that teachers were off getting some sort of additional training. It wasn’t until I became an adult that I learned that these conventions are really union meetings. The North Dakota Education Association is just the local chapter of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union. Which means that North Dakota’s students will be out of class for two days this year, as they are every year, while North Dakota taxpayers pay North Dakota teachers to attend their union meeting.
These days off are written right into the teachers’ contracts. They get two days off every school year to attend their union meeting at the taxpayers’/students’ expense.
Because its not like they could hold this meeting during the 3 or so months teachers aren’t working every year.
Aren’t unions wonderful?
Update: Just got this from a reader:

The legislature did in fact pass that law last session, requiring the school to basically add days to their school year. They added two days to the year at my wife’s school and thus no longer require them to come into the school or go to the convention. Since they previously counted those days as school days, they no longer do that. My wife does not get paid any more money because they are not actually teaching anymore in the classroom.

Still seems silly to hold the convention in the middle of the school year given that there’s three months when all teachers can attend without having to disrupt the school schedule.

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http://Array Trenter

From some of my close friends who teach, they are curious to see what the attendance at the convention is this year.
http://www.valleydeals.com/cgi-bin/board2/YaBB.pl Kevin Flanagan

The Legislature made a chnage; teachers are no longer paid for the days they attend the convention

I just heard that on the news.
How will they be able to feed their families now?
Anon

Check your facts. The Legislature made a chnage; teachers are no longer paid for the days they attend the convention, nor are they paid if they stay back for those days and do prep work for class.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Is it someone’s belief that teacher unions will drive school districts to relocate to other countries where labor costs are cheaper?

What a stupid arguement. I can tell you have no point when you bring somemthing like that up.

The problem is that the teachers get richer and richer while the taxpayer struggles paying their tax bill. We don’t have an obligation to pay anyone any more than the market demands.

Only through government coercion could you arrive where teachers salaries are skyrocketing (while they lie and say they are underpaid), while they work less (more in-classroom help (which by itself is a good thing)), while the quality of their product goes down.

How many parents are finding that they are having to introduce concepts to the kids when they try to do their homework?
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I feel really good that we are forced to pay for these teachers to “attend” their union convention.

Why does the union insist that it’s done during the school year? I would suggest that it’s because nobody would show up otherwise.

I put “attend” in quotes as I heard many teachers show up to sign in in he morning and cut class for the rest of the day.
Growley

I just called a friend of mine who is a teacher and he told me that his school started earlier this year to compensate for the convention days and that he is not paid any more money this year because he is still instructing the same amount of days.
Johnny

I talked to a lot of my teacher friends who always went to the convention every year, but not this year or anymore.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

You’re so full of crap woof. The child labor movement started before the labor movement.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Yeah my kids are home today so my wife’s missing work.

So I’m paying the teachers not to work and my wifes missing a days pay.

Great.
Johnny

Can someone correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the legislature force the school districts to add 2 school days on to their schedule this year? In most districts, you had to either go to the convention or stay and work in the school if you were a teacher, now you can either go to the convention or just stay at home or vacation.
WOOF

Thank Unions, thank teachers,
you and your kids are
not here.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I guess I didn’t exactly understand that. Are you saying that the number of days of class this year and last year are the same? If so they are paid the same (plus their Cola raise)?
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Anon: Were their salaries cut by 1% to accomplish that? (assuming 200 days of school)

Or did they pay them the same (plus their “inflation raise) and just no longer required to do anything?
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Why is that?
Johnny

Because they don’t have to work at school or attend the convention anymore, they can do whatever they want. They would go to the convention to basically get out of town and get away from school each year, (and learn about teaching I guess, but I think that was secondary unfortunately) but now they are just relaxing and staying in town.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

I get it now, thanks. So that’s a good thing.

End of complaining on my part.
Growley

I just called him back and he said the days he is contracted for are the same as last year. His only pay adjustment is the COLA raise, you are correct.

So previous years, they were actually paid for 2 days where they were either at convention or supposedly working at the school, now those days are added to the beginning of the schedule at his school and they are actually instructing those days. Seems like a better deal to taxpayers for me, the teachers are now teaching those 2 days they were already being paid for.
WOOF

Management is beyond reproach?
Enron , Worldcom etc
Steve L.

In our state, the teacher’s union got the legislature to pass a law that requires school districts to give teachers the days of the convention off. All a teacher has to do is announce that he/she is going to the convention and the school must get a substitute teacher for those days. The teacher doesn’t have to take any sick or personal days off and doesn’t have to make the days up, but he/she still gets paid for them. Additionally, the teacher does not ahve to provide any documentation verifying attendance at the convention. As a result, most districts now take holidays for those two days to save the money on subs.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

And the teachers had nothing to do with it.
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

When the public sector and unions fail it is always because “they don’t have enough money”. Failure is then usually rewarded.

When the private sector fails it is because their product or service isn’t good enough. Failure is not rewarded.*

*this doesn’t apply to most major airlines and other industries that the government bails out time and time again.

Ask yourself this question – do you mess up or make a mistake at your place of employment and then promptly go to your employer and demand more money?
whitrock

If I understand some of these earlier anti-union comments . . . Is it someone’s belief that teacher unions will drive school districts to relocate to other countries where labor costs are cheaper? Busing students there is going to be tough.

Labor unions have more relevance in the public sector than anywhere else! And, by negotiating health insurance benefits AND wages appropriate for well-educated professionsl (most, if not all, with Masters Degrees!), unions are keeping wage and benefit levels stable for other non-unionized employees.
http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

WOOF – how long are you going to trade on this?

What do teacher’s unions do today?

Tough question, I know. It is one that you keep on avoiding.
WOOFX

labor and child labor movements danced together.

There was child labor law from the early 1800′s, Not much attention was paid.
Termination of child labor was a goal of unions.
Note the picture of the factory child is 1908.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Check your facts. The Legislature made a chnage; teachers are no longer paid for the days they attend the convention, nor are they paid if they stay back for those days and do prep work for class.

First I’ve heard of that. Got something I can read on it?

But I’m not sure how we can not pay teachers for two days…they aren’t hourly employees. They get paid salaries. The point is, our kids are missing two days of school for a union meeting that could just as easily be held in the summer when there is no school.

Woofie:

Management is beyond reproach?
Enron , Worldcom etc

It wasn’t unions who brought Enron and Worldcom down, it was federal investigators.

Again, unions are pointless today.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

And what does any of that have to do with the ridiculous things unions do today?
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Whistler, what he’s saying is that they added two days onto the school year to compensate for the two days school is out while teachers are at their union meeting.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

I’ve heard some rumors that the partying that goes on at the teacher conventions is pretty wild…as odd as that probably sounds.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

There is no denying that unions were instrumental in improving working conditions, but these days they’re all about money.

The unions are forcing American businesses under (or forcing them to leave the country). They are an irrelevant anachronism and do nothing but make life more expensive for citizens.

And they do absolutely nothing to improve education. Far from it, the deteriorate the quality of education.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Is it someone’s belief that teacher unions will drive school districts to relocate to other countries where labor costs are cheaper? Busing students there is going to be tough.

It’s my belief that labor unions will drive down the quality of education while driving up the cost of education. Which is pretty much what labor unions do in ever industry. The private sector, though, has the advantage of being able to move its operations around to avoid labor unions in some instances. Public sector employers don’t have that luxury, unfortunately, and so we taxpayers take it in the shorts.

And I’m right, too.
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North Dakota School Kids Off For Teachers’ Convention

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