Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama enjoyed a real standout week at the start of this month — he stood out in fundraising and he stood out in political courage.

In reporting second-quarter fundraising totals, Obama's campaign raised $32 million, which is $5 million more than Sen. Hillary Clinton, the presumed front-runner.

Appearing with six other Demo-cratic contenders at the annual convention of the National Education Association in Philadelphia, Obama joined his fellow candidates in praising teachers and calling for change to the No Child Left Behind law. Like the others, Obama was preaching to the choir when he bashed the Bush-supported law and said it is "the emptiest slogan in the history of American politics."

Obama, unlike the other Demo-cratic candidates speaking to some 9,000 NEA members, was, however, willing to deviate from the stand-ard Democratic script in voicing support for merit pay — paying teachers for results and giving the best, most-effective teachers more money.

Near the end of his speech, Obama pitched the idea of merit pay, adding that he would not use "arbitrary tests"to calculate which teachers received extra compensation.

Most people can see that it would be difficult to measure or quantify which teachers are more effective than others, but it's an idea that deserves support. Clearly, some teachers are significantly better than others, just like some engineers, accountants and lawyers are better than others. So why shouldn't the better teachers receive higher pay? Such a system might also motivate some teachers to try harder.

Obama deserves praise for being willing to bring up the topic at an NEA convention, while the other candidates only told the teachers what they wanted to hear.

It's uncommon for an individual to be arrested twice in a 24-hour period for drunken driving. Usually after being arrested, an intoxicated driver takes the time to sober up and contemplate the trouble he or she is in.Thursday and Friday, Butler Eagle readers had the opportunity to read about two area drivers who didn't learn a lesson from their first arrest, didn't pause to sober up, and ended up being arrested on DUI charges a second time — in both cases in five hours or less.Thursday's newspaper contained an article about Cynthia L. Weber, 35, of Rimersburg, who was arrested twice for DUI in less than four hours by the same state police trooper on the same Clarion County road.The arrests occurred less than four miles apart.Friday's Eagle reported on the June 24 arrests of Jeffrey Scott Glenz, 36, of Zelienople, the first arrest while he was driving his motorcycle in Jackson Township and the second, while he was operating his pickup truck in Harmony.Glenz made the mistake of bragging about his first arrest at a local restaurant and tavern. Zelienople police received a telephone tip about Glenz' bragging and, while stationed in the parking lot of a business on Route 68, spotted Glenz driving his truck, and he was stopped.These two individuals displayed such a total disregard for the law and other people's safety. The court systems that will hear their cases owe it to law-abiding motorists to impart a message that they won't ever forget.It is such drunken arrogance that oftentimes is the cause of highway fatalities and serious injuries.

The state and the union that represents faculty members at the 14 universities of the State System of Higher Education deserve praise for the spirit of compromise that enabled them to avoid a strike.The four-year pact that they hammered out includes only some of what the faculty members sought, while on some issues the state agreed to give more than it initially offered.A contract with which neither side is totally happy is generally deemed the best contract.Slippery Rock University is part of the State System. The union representing the 5,500 faculty members statewide who are covered by the new contract is the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF).It has been estimated that it will be about a month before the faculty members' contract ratification vote is complete.The agreement seeks to replace a five-year contract that expired June 30. Had the two sides failed to reach a settlement and faculty members carried out their threat to strike, 25,000 summer school students at the universities would have been affected.Students paying for their education don't deserve the uncertainties that the strike would have entailed.