If there is a shortage of teachers of math and science in the public schools--which there is, because there are more opportunities in the private market for people who know math and science--then allow public schools to offer more pay for math and science teachers. All the business people say that, because that is the rule under which they live. It's the market. They're used to it, and they don't question it.

Unions think differently. It is part of the ideology of unionism that everyone in the group is paid under the same rules. No favoritism. And so, when the Editorial Board had a visit from Washington Education Association leaders Jan. 19, I expected a statement about fairness when I asked: Why shouldn't math and science teachers be paid more, if there is a shortage? And I did get something like that answer from WEA President Mary Lindquist: "We have traditionally not been supportive of singling out one group."

Then she had another answer. She said, "It's also a gender issue. It means you're paying men, by and large, more than you're paying women"--because a higher proportion of math and science teachers are men.

Out of a whole hour's talk about schools and funding and education politics, that was the statement I kept thinking about. The thing that struck me was that in the private sector, such an argument would never come up. You paid a certain type of employee more because you had to. Nobody would look at it as a fairness question. It would be a practical question only.