Yes, it is a most frustrating problem and apparently not just
our problem. California schools are a dismal failure and EVERYONE wants them fixed.....until someone actually identifies the real problems and tries to fix them. The conservatives want the waste stopped and the dead wood weeded out, the liberals want more money dumped into the system.
I think that our Governor may have been a bit naive thinking he could take on the teacher's union, but I have faith in him. He truly is trying to straighten out the mess that the liberals have created in this state.
I do not know if it is true in the States as well as the UK but certainly unions are much stronger in the public sector than the private. I suppose at the end of the day in the private sector one is answerable to shareholders and the bottom line is profit whereas in the public sector all you try to do is obtain more money from government whether it be local or national.