Study: Over 28 Percent of School Teachers Are Chronically 'Absent'

Almost 30 percent of public school teachers are chronically absent, according to a new study.

The report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education policy think tank, found over 28 percent of public school educators miss 11 or more school days each year.

The report also found that public school teachers are three times more likely than their charter school counterparts to take more than 10 days a year off school for personal or health-related reasons.

The study also found:

• The average teacher takes eight days off per year — more than twice as much as the 3.5 days missed by the average employee across industries nationwide.
• Teachers in union charter schools were twice as likely as their peers to miss more than 10 days of school.

"When in doubt, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one," David Griffith, the author of the study, told The Daily Caller. 

"And the simplest explanation for the teacher chronic absenteeism gap between charter and traditional public schools is that the latter are usually subject to collective bargaining agreements that are extremely generous when it comes to the amount of sick and personal leave that teachers are guaranteed."

"There's a very direct link between teacher attendance and student achievement, so if teachers are missing more than two weeks of school… then students are losing about two weeks of education," he added. "And that's incredibly damaging to their long-term prospects."

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