These People Don't Live In The Real World

Here they go again:

The Teacher of the Year for the Lucia Mar Unified School District cannot be named within the space of this story.

"It's everyone," said Branden Leach, president of the Lucia Mar Unified Teachers Association.

All 575 instructors in San Luis Obispo County's largest school district are winners, he said. "We all help children in our own special way."

...at tonight's school board meeting...Leach will read a statement explaining why the union has decided not to pick a single winner this year.

Leach said Monday that the council of teachers from every campus in the district was in the process of selecting a winner in January.

That coincided with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's first pitch for merit pay for public-school teachers. His proposal has met with strong opposition...

"We decided that choosing one among us as the best is similar to merit pay," Leach said...

Schwarzenegger had proposed putting a measure on the November ballot to institute merit pay...it didn't qualify in time for a possible November election.

The measure could go before voters next year instead. Schwarzenegger's plan calls for the elimination of automatic pay increases, instead tying them to student achievement...

Jack O'Connell, the state's superintendent of public instruction and a former state senator from San Luis Obispo, called the governor's plan flawed.

"Gov. Schwarzenegger's proposal to impose merit pay would make the challenging profession of teaching less desirable at a time when we sorely need to recruit, develop and support excellent teachers," O'Connell said. "His approach would pit teacher against teacher when we know that collaboration is the key to improving student achievement."

These people simply don't live in the real world.

Or as James Taranto wrote in the WSJ's OpinionJournal.com:

We're not sure arguing that all teachers are equally bad is the best way to win public support.