Ok, perhaps I was a bit hasty. Believe me, I don't think for a minute that I'm going to change anybody's opinion on this. My goal was simply to provide a different point of view, and to suggest that what appears to be a "simple solution" to the problem (i.e. fire them all) isn't nearly that simple. We all have to understand that contract discussions are incredibly complex, and those of us outside the discussions rarely know enough of the details to really have much valid to say.

Would I like to see teacher strikes ended? You bet. My first point on this matter stated that if you look historically at all strikes, you find that in the end, the two sides met near the middle. The only group that wins is the lawyers in a strike.

I'd like to tackle a few points made recently though.

1. Strike in the summer? What would that prove? Do you think both sides sat on their thumbs all sumer long? WHile I don't know the details of S. Butler, I'm willing to bet both sides were working throughout the summer, and probably last year to arrive at some deal. You can bet discussions started before the old contract ended. The strike is the last resort, and only works if there is some leverage. There is no leverage over the summer. Often, school boards won't meet over the summer to discuss contracts because they have nothing to threaten the teachers with. Much as we'd all like to see it, a summer strike won't happen. Consider yourself lucky if your school talks with the teachers during that time.

2. Merit Pay. So you want to pay teachers by how good they are? Sounds simple huh? How do you measure how good a teacher is? The number of A's their students earn? The performance of their students on standardized test? Review by their peers? In all cases, there is so much room for fraud. What do you do with a teacher who makes test so easy that most of her students earn A's? How do you prevent that? What do you do with a teacher who has all the learning support kids who funcion 2 grade levels below where they ought to be? Punsish them when their students do poorly on the state tests? How do you know a group of peers isn't really a group of friends that will score artifically high, or a group of enemies that will score artifically low? Do you have the Superintendent or Principal take on additional duties to review teachers a few times a year? There is no good way to make it work. It's been tried in other states and abandoned. You can't easily quantifiy such a subjective thing. Schools are not factories. You can't grade them on units produced.

3. Part time. I never said they work part time - I was just repaeating what somebody else said. I think they often work more than many full-time employees we know. Others have chimed in about what teachers do over the summer, so I won't elaborate here.

4. Mark, refering to point 2 of your post - yes they knew what they were getting into with pay. Does that mean they can't work to change that? Frankly, I want the best and brightest as teachers, and I'm willing to pay for it. My kids are worth it.

Mark, you suggest return disrespect for what you perceive as disrespect from the teachers. That's really a great trait to pass on to children (note sarcasm). Unless you have worked in a school, you have no way of knowing how much most teachers love what they do. They put up with the mud slung at them by posters like you because they love it.