1 in 4 U.S. teachers are chronically absent

Isn't it standard to get some sort of documentaion if you're out more than three days? And you are missing the mark if you're just focusing on sick teachers.

 

Better educated students ...

 

Possibly, or yet another change in education that edges a few more talented, smart people to choose another career path.

 

Kinda hard to do that when they're missing school because they're getting sick more often by catching whatever the teacher had.

When I was in school, students were allowed 18 days (10 percent of 180) of absences. There's a reason for that. Kids are more vulnerable to getting sick.

 

I'd like to see the crosstab of "Best Teachers" and absenteism.

 

I'd like to see a discussion based on useful data from a well-executed study, but we don't have that, either. Arbitrarily cutting into teachers' sick days without useful such a study seems premature and unproductive, the type of knee-jerk reaction you would expect from people who simply want to see more teachers fired without any concern for ensuring that the right ones are losing their jobs.

 

What should be done? Duh.

You have to fire teachers who don't show up for work.

 

You want to fire an employee who fulfills the requirements of his or her contract?

Define "teachers who don't show up for work." Obviously, you don't mean that literally. All of the teachers in this study show up for work . The question is how often they are there.

Also, are we talking about teachers who miss too many days just one year? Even if they have had perfect attendance in the past? Or does it have to be a pattern of missing days?

These are just a few questions raised by the vague points you have made on this thread. Perhaps you simply didn't take the time to consider making a point. You just saw an article that gave you an opportunity to criticize teachers and posted it without reading it carefully or thinking things through.

I have been working on the assumption that you just want more teachers fired and you don't care which teachers lose their jobs. You don't seem to want to take the time to make sure the good teachers are protected while the bad ones are dismissed. Such an approach would likely make things worse rather than better by taking jobs away from quality teachers and making the field less attractive to potential future educators.

So far, you aren't doing much to counter that assumption.

 

If they doubled their absentee rate they'd just about match Congress.

 

You don't know that.

 

Yes. Of course you have to fire them.

Obviously, if they've put in for family and medical leave, that's a different story, or if a doctor has verified a serious illness or injury.

If they just want to call in sick a couple of times a month? Who cares what their previous attendance record was?

 

Yes, I do. The discussion is based on the article YF linked, which is based on a flawed study. There may be a well-executed study out there, but one has not been brought to this discussion.