In the wake of the record-breaking 49-day work stoppage which left parents in Marysville, Washington, scrambling and angry, a Washington state legislator named Hans Dunshee has introduced a bill that would requires school districts to start bargaining a lot sooner in the interest of settling disputes before time runs out and a strike is called.

The legislation appears sensible. It would require contract negotiations to get started at least five months before a district's budget is adopted and allows either side the right to call for binding arbitration if no agreement is reached 60 days into the negotiations. School board members are complaining that this "would not allow [them] to keep control of [their] local negotiations." Perhaps, but it might just get kids from missing school.

"Education is an essential service," said Dunshee, "and we ought to treat it like an essential service, like fire and police." Amen.