Here are some proposals:
1. Because state education is hopeless broken due to a lack of competition, vouchers are a must, however distasteful they are to those fearing 'state control of private schools.'
2. If vouchers can't get passed, then pass a property tax credit to parents sending children to private schools.
3. Pass a law that no millage elections can be held EXCEPT on the same day people are voting for a senator, governor, congressman, or president.
4. Pass a law that no bond or millage proposal may be re-held within 4 year after it is defeated.
5. Develop a ten year plan to get the state out of the education business entirely except, maybe, for charity cases.
6. Dismantle education taxing entities, making the cost of education the responsibility of the parent (except for charity cases).
This is the solution to the perceived education "crisis". Some of the top private schools in Texas cost $10K per year tuition. The state currently spends $8200 per student in education spending. By returning that full amount in vouchers and shutting the public schools down, the students could find much better educational options at the same price.
An EXCELLENT template for decreasing the education bureaucracy is found in what New Zealand did in the 1980s. They took a systems approach incorporating many of the principles of Human Performance Technology (HPT). It was Tom Gilbert (instructional guru) meets Ronald Reagan.
Read all about it here:
http://www.hillsdale.edu/newimprimis/2004/april/default.htm
I gave this article to the Texas legislator (Grusendorf) sponsoring the education budget reforms two months ago when I met him at a meeting in Tarrant County.