Two years ago I complained about the ???apple ballot??? that the Montgomery County Education Association distributed with its election-time endorsements. Well, it's back this year, with ???Teachers Recommend??? still emblazoned prominently (and, in my view, somewhat misleadingly) at the top. But that's nothing compared to this year's great display of teacher union power: Montgomery County schools are not only closed today (purportedly to protect students from intruders, as most schools are used as polling places) but were also closed yesterday.* Which means that MCEA's 12,000 members could spend a long weekend campaigning for Democratic candidates (most likely, across the Potomac in Virginia), and then volunteer at polling places today, all without taking a single hour off of work. That's pretty smart politically, but what's the justification for students to miss two days of school in the middle of the fall semester?
* Update (3:20 p.m.): Fordham Fellow Catherine Cullen tells me that yesterday was a "professional day" for teachers in Montgomery County, meaning they had to work. She's right; this calendar confirms it, though it's still not clear to me if teachers had to report for duty or could work remotely. Could they "grade papers" from Virginia? It still looks fishy to me!
