My local newspaper recently published an editorial touting that there is no correlation between teacher pay and student achievement. At first, I was in a state of denial. "This has to be some sort of mistake," I told myself. But I then realized the research is probably right. Teachers are not in it for the money. We do our best no matter how much we get paid.

I am not saying, however, that teachers should be paid less. The following are other conclusions that can be reached through the same exhaustive research:

• Doctors do not save more lives if they are paid more.
• Police officers do not lower the crime rate if they are paid more.
• Fire fighters do not put out more fires and save more lives if they are paid more.

The last two are good comparisons as they are public servants like teachers. Unlike teachers, however, they are entitled to make overtime. Firefighters in my county make over $100,000 with all their overtime. Teachers work overtime but receive no extra pay.

If we are to look at privatizing education, we may want to look at privatizing these agencies too. We certainly could save more money by paying them less. Or, perhaps, we should pay people based on their education and training.