District’s Teachers Work 50+ Days Less Than Private Sector, Union Prez Gripes [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

District’s Teachers Work 50+ Days Less Than Private Sector, Union Prez Gripes [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"Emily Tims is president of the Lake Shore Federation of Teachers Local 1465 and is listed as a teacher on the payroll of Lake Shore Public Schools.
But the contract her union has negotiated with the Macomb County district allows Tims to collect a full-time teacher’s pay while spending half her workdays doing union business. 
The practice is called “leave time.”
Tims, who had a salary of $81,572 in 2016-17, recently wrote a letter for Teacher Appreciation Week that was addressed to union members and shared by the Michigan arm of the American Federation of Teachers.
The letter highlights a gripe Tims has about a feature of teachers’ jobs that most people regard as a benefit: the 183-day annual work schedule.
...The BLS found that the average full-time private sector employee...works 234 days a year after holidays and days off, or 51 days more than a Lake Shore Public Schools teacher.
Also, the Lakeshore union contract states that a teacher workday is generally six hours during the 183 days a teacher is contracted to work.
The average teacher is not in the classroom 183 days in a year, though, being absent several days a year for sick days, doctor's appointments and work-related conferences.
A 2017 study released by the Thomas Fordham Institute found that 25 percent of teachers in public school districts missed 11 days or more from the classroom, which it defined as chronically absent..."
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