LAS VEGAS – Hundreds of Las Vegas teachers used a day of their recent summer vacation to give themselves a $768 pay raise.

Nearly 470 Clark County educators achieved this by quitting their local teachers union during its annual, two-week “drop” window, and saving themselves the hundreds of dollars in dues.

The summer exodus represents a 4 percent membership decline for the Clark County Education Association, reports the Las Vegas Sun.

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A group of free-market advocates at the Nevada Policy Research Institute are taking credit for the membership plunge. For the second consecutive year, NPRI officials conducted an informational email campaign to alert Clark County teachers of their right to quit the CCEA – and of the union’s strict July 1-15 window for dropping out.

NPRI Communications Director Victor Joecks told the Sun it’s important that teachers be informed of their rights.

“Obviously there’s a strong demand to know those options (seeing) 469 teachers deciding that the union is not the right choice for them and their family,” Joecks said.

CCEA leaders are downplaying the importance of the group’s effort, and claim they routinely lose 300 to 400 members every year, due to retirements and teacher turnover.

CCEA Executive Director John Vellardita also noted that 75 percent of the district’s 1,800 newly hired teachers have joined the union.

It appears the CCEA needs every member it can get. The union currently represents about 59 percent of Clark County teachers. Another couple NPRI-led information campaigns could prove hazardous to the union’s health.

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According to the Sun, “Under Nevada law, unions lose their collective bargaining rights if their membership dips to 50 percent or lower of the employee group.”