THE CAIRO SCOREBOARD

If there were a scoreboard keeping track of competition between teachers in Cairo and the school board, it would read something like this: Teachers 1, Students 0.

The teachers have ended their strike by accepting salary increased substantially higher than those the school board thought taxpayers could afford. In addition, the strike produced an agreement that no teachers would be fired at the end of the year -- even if the district needs to cut back for some good reason. At the end of last year, some teacher were let go as part of an overall cost-cutting effort. But the teachers don't want it to happen again.

In the meantime, students were kept out of classrooms for several weeks. Sports came to a standstill. Classes will be extended to Saturdays and well into June.

Ask the students if they think their education is going to be better now that the strike is over. Most of them probably still think their score is zero.