My beloved wife is a public school teacher. Based on her stories, you have no idea just how right you are. The levels of bureaucracy from the actual teacher up to the state are stupifying. Actual education takes third or fourth place behind filling out forms for non teaching administrators. All administrators are paid A LOT more than the teachers.
True story: after never seeeking a word of advice from the teachers, a core curriculum is purchased for a hefty mid 6 figure price and forced upon this school by administrators; none of whom are teachers. The kicker: the curriculum is developed by 1st-3d year college students with no experience whatsoever.
Absolutely right. My wife says the same.
The standard bureaucracy response to any issue is to hire a 6 figure expert to deal with it. My wife spends about 40% of her day dealing with committees, teams, testing and reports for people up the chain. These folks, former teachers or not, are notoriously out of touch with reality.
Many of the cut backs are actually kind of easy to anyone with eyes. However, most districts will layoff and raise class sizes first, before touching their district office programs.