We've all seen the arguments against public sector unions, and have seen how bullying them can give your political career a boost. State employees' unions especially are a double-edged sword, with the powers of a voting bloc allowing them to be the biggest burden on the state.

On the other side of the spectrum, however, we have to remember that these unions exist for a reason: Public employees are at the mercy of the democratic process, and with all the budget hawks out there (and they are much more vicious on the state and especially local level) these workers need something to stand in the way of the people saying "fuck you, i don't want to pay more taxes to have you teach my kid, just shut up and teach my kid." One can observe this all the more in states where local school district tax-hikes have to be approved in referendum, and they are basically *never* approved. Especially for schools, the pettiness of local politics could create a great deal of unfairness for some teachers that happened to get in the way of one school board member or other's agenda.

Thus i propose a middle solution, one that eliminates the ability of public sector unions to impose unfair burdens on the state, while at the same time guaranteeing the rights of the workers: A "Constitutional Bargain."

Basically it would entail an agreement for the workers to de-unionize in exchange for certain fair labor standards and the means to fund them being enshrined in State Constitutions. This way it would be very, very hard for the government on either the state or school-board level to mess with relative salary changes, hiring and firing standards, or benefits levels, and at the same time, the employees would be unable to use their votes to hold folks hostage for more.

Also we should detach high-school athletics from the high-schools, and make them into independent programs (tangental, but something that should still be done)

Why the state level? An even simpler solution would be a national agreement fixing teacher's pay and school funding at a guaranteed level per pupil. Similarly a national curriculum and textbook list would get rid of thousands of unnecessary school board positions.

Agreed with high-school athletics. The easiest way to do that would be to mandate that above break-even ticket sales and sponsorships are illegal for schools to make, since it is commercial activity.

Maybe it's just where i'm from... but school levies pass more often then not.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/11/08/55-of-school-levies-pass.html

Meanwhile, i've got to think detaching high school athletics would only cost the schools money.

You should see some of the stadiums that a few Texas high school teams have.  They look better than some crappy college team stadium.

At the moment schools have a huge financial incentive to focus on sports, and particularly sports that make money. Few children can actually make it in sports careers, but maths, English and science are essential for all skilled careers and this is what schools should be focusing on. Organised sports discourage general fitness as anyone who isn't good at it is ignored.

Right... the schools focus on sports... that make money.  The school makes money.  That money is spent on general education.

Just like College i'd think... whose sports programs enhance the general education.  Or Football does anyway.

Only issue i could imagine is that there might not be high school sports that make money.

Well when you spend $60 million dollars to build a high school stadium it might be pretty hard to make that money back...

http://www.wfaa.com/sports/high-school/New-60-million-Allen-stadium-one-of-a-kind-164931536.html

The voters voted for the bonds though.

Not acceptable. Schools do not exist to make money like that.

It's like if the government produced and sold breakfast cereal. Could they do it and make money? Certainly. Would it raise money for the things we want? Yes. Is it OK? No.

A lot of college teams are money-losing operations. This isn't the case with high-school teams, but do the profits generally go elsewhere than the athletics program?

My aunt in Ohio (who is politically nonaligned, slightly leaning Republican) often complains that local levies almost never pass.

Anecdotal, i know...