Public school teachers can no longer take all-expense paid free trips when arranging educational travel for groups of students and parents, according to the State Ethics Commission.
I described the situation in an article on Civil Beat yesterday (“No More Free Trips for Hawaii Public School Teachers,
State Ethics Commission ruling nixes public school educational travel“).
Here’s how my story begins:
Public school teachers will no longer be allowed to accept free trips and other benefits from private companies for arranging and participating in educational travel for groups of students and parents, according to a ruling by the State Ethics Commission.
Department of Education officials have already been told the free trips given teachers by private educational travel companies are “impermissible gifts” that violate the state ethics code, and that the practice should be stopped. The commission will now notify the superintendent in writing of its decision.
Les Kondo, commission executive director, is not insisting on cancelation of trips already scheduled and booked, including one set to begin within weeks, citing the complexity and potential cost of unraveling travel reservations.
It turns out that this has been an issue for years as private travel companies compete to sign up teachers, and groups of their students, in local school districts around the country.
Here in Hawaii, travel arrangements are driven by teachers, who select the travel company offering them the best deals, recruit their students, and then enjoy free air fare, hotels, meals, and sometimes even a stipend paid by the company.
The ethics commission, like ethics authorities elsewhere, see this as a conflict of interest and advise that accepting the free trips is not permitted by the state’s ethics law.
Check it out on Civil Beat if you have access.
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It seems to me that the Ethics Commission is thinking the worst of public school teachers organizing these trips. That they will steer their students towards particular vendors that will charge a higher price while giving the teachers a freebie/kickback. And maybe there are some unscrupulous teachers who will do that.
But I personally know of a couple of teachers in the past who have used their subsidy to help pay down the cost for every other participant in the group, rather than hog the savings for themselves. Which meant less money that had to be fundraised in car washes and hulihuli chicken sales.
But nah! Let the cynics and haters (many of whom will never contribute a single cent towards making a student trip a reality) have their way.
The law is the law,…. even if it might mean that students may have to pay a higher cost. Even if it means that there will be less opportunities for these kinds of activities.
The law is the law. I have no argument against that. For the students who might lose opportunities to take in the educational benefits of these trips that their older peers enjoyed, hey, it’s a “teachable moment” for those kids.
This is amazing! Fifty-two per cent of the kids in public school today are from homes that are on some form of public assistance. That means no money for anything, and yet some have managed to scrape together, God knows how, enough to let their kids have the eye opening wonder of a class trip to the mainland. Yes, by all means, let’s put a stop to that! Why, who knows what terrible things they might learn. And the teachers? Putting a major undertaking like this together, chaperoning students 24 hours a day, working like dogs to give their students some cultural lift that their richer neighbors take for granted–well–that is definitely suspect. What was it that Mr. Bumble said about the law in Oliver Twist? Oh, I remember, “The Law,” he said, “is a Ass!”
Escorted tours to Vegas do not make the escorts pay so why should a teacher pay to escort students? Am I missing something here? So now teachers who escort students pay their own way? Where is the ethics in that?
The law CAN be an ass. I don’t see the abuse. Many teachers provide unpaid chaperone service on field trips.
Izzat also a conflict??
During one summer break, our kid went on an out-of-state trip with his high school language teacher as the chaperone/escort, and it was a wonderful experience for him. In fact, EF was the travel company, and we thought they had reasonable prices and policies. The teacher was the sole chaperone & responsible adult for the 10-day trip, which meant 24/7 duty & no time off. In my view, the teacher deserved something for that role, not to mention all the work beforehand with organizing, etc.
IMO, the biggest problem with extra-curricular travel is that most kids can’t afford it at any price, no matter who is or isn’t getting a freebie. DOE taking over travel arrangements isn’t going to solve that problem. I sort of see the Ethics Commission’s points but think that the “cure” will probably kill all such travel, especially if DOE ends up running the show.
Are DOE students considered “employees,” too? No.
A good corporate citizen (and PR-savvy) travel company could charge the DOE employees full fare and offer means-tested deep discounts to the students.
Unless the real reason travel companies are offering incentives to the teachers is to maximize profits.
Identifying problems is easy.
Creating meaningful, intelligent solutions is not easy. and there’s the rub.
We see evidence of this everyday here; it’s easy to bitch.
As a teacher who has experienced these trips, I’ll break it down . Companies offer teachers free trips because most teachers and administrators want nothing to do with these trips and can’t afford them on the salaries we get. The teachers who do the trips are very poor teachers who can’t afford to go to these places on their own.
Months of planning are required. Once you arrive there is No pay and 24/7 duty with plenty of cultural misunderstandings, discipline infractions etc. There is no support for the teacher when you get sick, you are totally on your own and responsible for the teens. In my experience, underage drinking, serious accidents or health issues, visa and passport issues , hygiene issues, dietary and interpersonal conflicts are the norm rather than the exception.
Most high schools don’t offer student travel abroad because of the tons of headaches involved makes it not worth it for most schools.
That said,these programs are very enriching for the students and it is likely they will be the biggest losers since without teachers many of the programs would fold.
Providing an ethical framework for the teachers and companies to follow would work better than telling teacher to pay their own way when they don’t have the money to do so.
If the Ethics Commission is going to assume to worse about public school teachers who organize these trips, then two can play that game.
“Hey Junior. The folks gathered on that table there are a bunch of attorneys/busybodies who don’t care about public school trips getting scuttled because they send their own kids to private school.”
I have taken my students on out of country trips for the past 10 years. It involves months of planning, parent meetings, and countless hours of fundraising.
Once there, I am responsible for every aspect of the students trip. Waking up, eating, getting from place to place, lunch, dinner and going to sleep.
I am 100% responsible if a student becomes ill, gets lost or loses their passport.
A free trip???? not even close.
All my free time is devoted to making the trip an educational and memorable experience. From wake up at 7 am (sometimes earlier) to 10 pm I am responsible for each and every student.
Let me also remind you that Eftour stands for EDUCATION FIRST the entire trip is based around historical and cultural learning.
Let me also clarify, I don’t chose the tour company for a free trip.
going with a large, reputable experienced tour company means cheaper costs for the students. Also with 50 years experience these tour companies have perfected the art of student travel.
Where else will students get the opportunity to travel abroad, with a trusted teacher, close friends and at a cheap cost.
Parents would never send their child out of the country without a chaperone.
And last let us not forget Hawaii teachers are the 49th lowest paid teachers in the nation, we can not afford a trip to Europe every year, at least in cash. We instead invest our time and effort planning and chaperoning a trip for our students.
who loses out???
THE STUDENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!