Citing the National Center of Education Statistics, Jonathan Butcher of The Heritage Foundation says 72% of public schools have higher teacher absenteeism rates now than they did three years ago, or before the pandemic.
"This matters because teachers are so significant in a classroom," he tells AFN. "That sounds obvious, but they're the ones who are responsible for how students achieve and learn the fundamental skills that they're there for."
Meanwhile, student absenteeism is a significant problem as well.
"You have some historic decline in student success, and we're not going to be able remedy these things with chronic student absenteeism, nor with increased levels of teacher absenteeism," Butcher asserts.
He points out that teachers are the most important school-based factor in student academic outcomes, but they cannot contribute to student learning or character formation if they are absent from the classroom.
One solution he suggests is for schools to only agree to teacher contracts that reduce the number of sick and personal days.
