[bryanthompson]

expat, how hard is it to fire a bad teacher out where you live? I'm guessing it's even harder out in Cali than it is here in Nebraska. Bad teachers don't get fired, it just doesn't happen unless there's some obvious abuse of power or indecent activity.

A bad doctor wouldn't be able to cure patients, a bad lawyer would lose cases, bad builders would have crappy buildings, etc. In all of these other cases, the bad _whatever_ doesn't get hired again, or they get fired. This isn't the case with teachers. Bad teachers can't teach, and there is no effort to find out which teachers are effective, and which ones aren't--the union wouldn't have it.