Not a good news day for the teaching profession:

The whole society is based on merit. Why is public education the only place where we don’t give a damn if you’re any good?

Theodore Hershberg, a University of Pennsylvania professor and executive director of Operation Public Education, expounding on merit pay for teachers in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Fairness” in this case is a technical term under established labor law, and the teachers union may well win another round in the legal arena. In the court of public opinion, however, teachers are forfeiting any claim to responsibility and rationality. If they can’t recognize the fairness of getting a raise when many of the people who support them are heading for the breadlines, they don’t deserve anything.

The Express-Times on Pennsylvania’s Saucon Valley Education Association, which has sued the local school board for negotiating in bad faith by moving back on a contract offer from 4.7% increase to 3.25%.