Dealing effectively with the teachers' unions is one thing, a small step, but they're only a symptom of what is really wrong with education and that's, first, the Feds, and then each individual State's rules, regulations and mandates and Superintendent of Schools.
We're going through county-school budget upheaval here and I simply cannot believe the budget/pay obfuscation in play with the way salaries are calculated, from whence (Fed, State, local) the money comes, what is mandated by whom (Fed/State) in terms of rules and mandates for everything -- it's enough to make ya hurl.
The "education" schools are a joke, IMO. I'm no genius, nor well-educated on exactly what is provided and gained in obtaining a Master's in education, but it seems to me the key to teaching is to know the subject-matter well, with a few weeks of instructional-instruction, so exactly what is there to an educational degree aside from left-wing indoctrination?
So, the teachers are a low-level problem that will be rectified when we can get our hands around the throat of the educational establishment.