Yesterday New Jersey parents woke up to their annual smack in the face: All public schools are closed today and tomorrow, the first Thursday and Friday in November, so that NJEA can host its convention in Atlantic City. That’s on top of student conferences, which some NJ schools hold in November, closing schools for close to a half a dozen consecutive half-days. That’s on top of the four-day weekend later this month for Thanksgiving. That’s on top of many districts’ decision to close school this past Wednesday too, because today is Veteran’s Day.

In a typical district, the 22 available teaching days this month have been whittled down 15. This is in the midst of our children’s pandemic-induced learning loss that can only be ameliorated through additional learning time.

What’s going on at the NJEA Convention? How many of NJ’s 130,000 teachers are actually in Atlantic City? 

No one knows. NJEA never tells us.

Here’s what we do know: according to the Convention program, the teachers in attendance will engage in the “generational work of building a just and equitable society” in order to build an “Inclusive School Culture.” Members “will explore and express their intersectional identities while developing their expertise in teaching true and accurate history.”

Good for them. 

Yet I must pose my perennial question: Why does NJEA hold its annual convention during school days, unlike 46 other state teacher unions that hold their conventions during the summer or over a weekend? Why can’t NJEA members explore their intersectional identities without depriving students (and working parents—like me!) of a normal day of learning?

The easy answer is this: In 1923, 99 years ago, the NJ State Legislature voted to inscribe in statute a two-day holiday for NJEA members. Hey, moms were home anyway, right?  Here’s N.J. statute 18A:31-2:  “Any full-time teaching staff member of any board of education of any local school district or regional school district or of a county vocational school or any secretary, or office clerk” can “attend the annual convention of the New Jersey Education Association” and “receive his whole salary for the days of actual attendance upon the sessions of such convention.” 

Now, the program looks great: attending teachers (however many or few there are) can hear keynotes from Levar Burton  and Nikole Hanna-Jones and David Hogg. They can attend inspiring professional development sessions and experience the camaraderie any professional deserves.

Yes. Yes. Yes. #NJEAConvention https://t.co/UP4pWP9qZx

— NJEA (@NJEA) November 10, 2022

But what if, in order to make real that commitment to “the generational work of building a just and equitable society,” NJEA followed the lead of most of the country’s other state unions and moved its convention to a holiday weekend or the summer and preserved learning days? Why is that such a big ask?

I don’t think the State Legislature would object.