MEA break: What's it for exactly?

And this is one of the busiest travel weeks of the year in Minnesota. It is MEA break. Yeah, the yearly teachers conference in St. Paul has largely turned into a chance for one last getaway before winter. Fox 9's Emily Pofall is live in St. Paul for us at this hour. Emily, students are off Thursday and Friday, and so are educators. Yeah, all so that those educators can attend the conference here in St. Paul put on by the Union Education Minnesota. We got the latest numbers, though. Attendance is way down, which leaves some wondering why the break still exists. On her way out the door, Sarah Newberry Donovan and her two kids are rushing to their Tuesday night flight, a week-long getaway to New York they've looked forward to for months. I think having a longer break from school is kind of an ideal time to take a trip. The third week in October marks the Minnesota Educators Academy, or MEA, conference. Teachers across the state take Thursday and Friday to re-license and focus on professional development. And families take the time to travel. MSP expects some 50,000 passengers to pass through the airport in the next few days. That's 16% higher than average for this fall. It's become a fall break for our families, and they come to expect it. Monica Byron leads Education Minnesota. The union's 80,000-plus members are invited to attend the conference for free each year. It's such a perfect time for them to assess what's going on in their classrooms. But Byron says attendance numbers never recovered from the pandemic. In 2023, 669 people attended in person. In 2024, 621. And in 2025, 659. Education Minnesota now offers MEA courses online. Thousands, the union says, choose to re-license that way instead of making the drive to St. Paul. Why does the state still need MEA? The state still needs MEA because our educators need it. Our educators need a place to be able to focus on their own individual needs. how popular the extra time off is depends on who you ask i think it's a really mixed bag there's a lot of random school days off for holidays and and different types of breaks and so i think for some families that's really frustrating and hard because it's hard to take off work MEA is Thursday at the Saint Paul River Center this year on top of relicensing courses education Minnesota is offering listening sessions on AI in the classroom, teacher burnout, and grief. In St. Paul, Emily Pofall, Fox 9. All right, Emily, we'll see how many come this year. The airport will be busy later this week.