Manhattan Beach Teachers Protest Scholar Quiz

I have a couple of questions for the teachers who decided to boycott the  2012 Mira Costa High School Scholar Quiz over budget disputes:

1. What is the number one obstacle to teachers who teach well yet who cannot get a comparable compensation package recognizing their efforts?

2. What fiscal issues is hurting school districts the most egregiously?

3. What political power has done more to frustrate reform and innovation in the classroom than any other party or interest group?

Just for fun, a bonus question with multiple choice answers:

4What changes can best occur to ensure that public education survives the budget crunches which threaten Beach Cities schools with furlough days and staff reductions:

     a. reduce the power of scared school boards

     b. reduce the influence of politics and partisanship in our schools

     c. reduce the dependence of public schools on exclusive state subsidies

     d. allow students throughout the region to choose the school that they attend, regardless of their home address.

For questions one and three, the answer is. . .. the teachers' unions.

For the second question, the correct answer is the benefits and pensions contracted to teachers through short-sighted bargaining between school boards and teachers unions, which have excluded the taxpayers.

For the last question, any and all of the above.

I appreciate all the hard work that our teachers are doing for their students. I understand the motivation for teachers refusing to contribute their time to a popular after-school activity in light of the unequal compensation which they receive. I do not appreciate, however, their means and identification for airing their grievances, which sadly harm the students and do not properly represent the interests of individual teachers.

The sooner that union leadership and school district administration take, pass, and implement the above quiz, the sooner that we will witness a renaissance in public education that will prepare students, award teachers, and spare taxpayers from having to contribute money to a system of education still in need of reform and accountability.