State Rep. Daylin Leach and I recently had a raging TV debate. The video on our Web site throws up the interesting concept of political labels. Long before he called me a "conservative," Leach looked like he wanted to punch me out. My wife tells me that I was provoking him. She may have a point. No self-respecting career politician likes being told he's talking nonsense. But in my defense - he was talking nonsense!

At one point we discussed what employees do if they don't like the job offer received from their employer. I asked him: "What do you think most people do if they think their job offer is lousy?" He replied: "Go on strike." What planet is this Democrat on? For the vast majority of people, if you refuse to work by walking off your job, you get fired. Why is this reality lost on people like Mr. Leach?

As the debate got going, Rep. Leach said the movement inside the state Legislature to ban teacher strikes was being promoted by the "far right." I don't know; it seems to me that those who oppose the measure are part of the "far wrong." Then he threw the conservative label at me. Personally, I find political labels tedious; nonetheless, I have been attending Pennsbury school board meetings to see if the label fits.

At a recent meeting, one parent literally wept during public comment at the prospect of not having full-day kindergarten. "It's so good for the children" went the tears. Nothing is too good for little Johnny after all. Mind you, such folk never finish the sentence, which is to say, "I expect everyone else to pay higher school taxes to support my little Johnny."

I have no problem with any parent wanting full-day kindergarten. They can just put their hand into their pocket, go to the private sector, and pay for it themselves - instead of expecting taxpayers to finance their daycare needs. There is no evidence that I'm aware of to suggest that an 18-year old graduates from high school better educated, having attending full-day instead of half-day kindergarten.

At another meeting a teacher demanded the school board provide for mini-vans to deliver the high school students between buildings East and West. I guess the regular buses weren't good enough. She insisted that saying "no" meant the school board didn't care about investing in education. Whereas I was thinking we need to cancel the regular buses to save taxpayer money and all students can take a 10-minute walk. The exercise will do them good.

At yet another meeting some parents complained about student safety during recess at an elementary school. Apparently there was a lack of adult supervision near a busy road so the parents wanted money to build a fence, or hire aides. Whereas I was thinking "is there something wrong with the 30 teachers sitting inside the building drinking coffee - that one or two can't take turns to do recess duty once a week?"

But we were told this couldn't be done under the teachers union contract. So then I'm thinking that the solution isn't to turn our schools into fenced prison yards; the solution is simply to decertify the teachers union for being the horror of public education.

Bleeding hearts are now showing up to say that mandating math and reading proficiency on PSSA tests to get a high school diploma is a bad idea. That's because Johnny is a genius; he's just not a good test taker. Well, the sooner Johnny learns to be one the better. That's because a battery of standardized tests are all waiting down the road to influence his life.

We do our children a huge disservice in this increasingly competitive world by wrapping them in cotton during their formative years. And we needlessly punish taxpayers by wasting money on things that have no impact on educational outcomes.

If that makes me a conservative then so be it. It is still time for clueless teacher-backing lawmakers to stop talking nonsense, stop crying, and stop raiding taxpayers' bank accounts.

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Simon Campbell, Lower Makefield, has three children attending Pennsbury schools and is president of StopTeacherStrikes, Inc. (http://www.stopteacherstrikes.org/)