The Arizona Republic has an editorial worth reading, the topic is how far parents will go to abuse the education system. Evidently, a family threatened a lawsuit if a student didn't get to retake a test that she had failed. The worst part was the response of district officials that did not take a stand against this family. I would like to say this is an isolated incident, but far too often in Arizona this is the norm. The districts don't back their teachers with the confidence they should. I am not talking about matters of abuse, but in matters of everyday school procedure and grading. Teachers work very long hours for low pay and little real recognition. Then when cases like this come up the district rather than stand by these deadicated professionals, they put their head in the sand. I say this is the norm in Arizona and I know it all too well. I know a teacher who put in probably 60 hours a week(at least), she left generally before 7am in the morning and was rarely home before 5 in the afternoon. She spent her evenings and weekends grading papers. She helped alot of kids helping some kids improve as much as two grade levels of reading ability in a single year. She worked inner city schools for a good part of the twenty years often with families who didn't speak English, her guiding idea if they wanted to learn she wanted to teach. After 20 years of teaching she moved to a suburbs school district for a shorter commute and less stress. She found it amusing that her first day at the new school a child was in tears of forgetting their lunch was the biggest stress of the day rather than a student carrying a gun into the classroom. After a few months a new stress appeared, a student had done poorly on an exam. She was willing to help the student work to improve their grades in the future, but the grade stood as it was. But that wasn't enough for the parents, so they went to the school board and demand to have their child's grade raised. The school board caved, they ordered the teacher to change the grade. The teacher left the profession after finishing the school year. She had helped nearly 2000 students by my best guess learn and grow. But no more. School districts never have enough money or time to accomplish all that they are charged to do. But they can back their teachers with the confidence that they have authority in the classroom. It's a simple thing, they hired this person, trust their judgement. Oh and how do I know that teacher's story so well? I grew up with it unfolding before my eyes, because you see that teacher is my Mom.