Memo to Superintendent Mario Contini: It's not all about money. Because while California's teachers enjoy the highest average salaries in the nation, they produce a dropout rate that approaches 50 percent in L.A. County alone!

I also suggest you check your data sources, since according to the National Education Association's 200708 report, expenditures per pupil rank us 26th in the country, and our total receipts from all funding sources provide us with another No. 1 position.

Further, according to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2005-06, we were in the unenviable position of being second only to that paragon of virtue, Texas, in our school debt and the cost of our school administration. So, Mario, as study after study indicates, we as a society spend more on education than virtually any other and get less. But you already know that.

I'd like to know, Mario, where it is written that teachers should be exempt from the vagaries of the marketplace and why after they have made the choice of their profession they be permitted to change the structure of that choice and the taxpaying public is required to support it?

Those of us who choose our profession and remain in it become familiar with its working conditions, expectations and compensation scale. If we become disenchanted with any or all aspects of our work, we can certainly try to find greener pastures.

While I salute the too few good teachers out there, I invite the others to come try it out here—outside the hallowed halls of academia where, if you were to turn in a 50 percent failure rate year after year like your colleagues in L.A. schools, you'd be frequently job searching.

No, Mario, it's not just about the cash, because if you were really about fixing the problems that face local education, you'd look to cut the jobs of those "teachers" who don't teach and those administrators who just cloud issues. You'd also add transparency to district contracting. Will this ever happen?

What say you, Acorn readers? Paul Kessler Thousand Oaks