“As states prepare their budgets for the coming year, they face the challenge of reinvesting in public higher education systems after years of damaging cuts — the product of both the economic downturn and states’ reluctance to raise additional revenues.”
—From story by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, March 19, 2013.
Louisiana Voice 
There’s a fairly simple fix that has been evident for years. We need a contitutional amendment that overides or supersedes all previous amendments that protect certain fiefdoms. It should simply say that whenever the state has a shortfall of funds, said deficit shall be spread equally across the budget. Some years ago when health and education were experiencing 10% cuts, legislators told me that equally spread cuts would only come to one per cent! It would doubtless be more today, but not nearly 35%.
About $5.8 billion of the state’s general fund (cutting other means of financing our budget won’t help solve the state budget problem) is considered non-discretionary. Of that, $3.6 billion is constitutionally dedicated, $3.4 billion of that $3.6 billion is for elementary and secondary education. Do you believe cutting state aid to public education is a good plan? How about cutting debt service on our general obligation bonds and other bona fide state debt? How about match for mandated federal programs?
Look here and elsewhere in the Executive Budget documents online:
:
Click to access GraphSection.pdf
Variations of what you suggest have been done in the past and one could argue that elementary and secondary education is not fully funded in accordance with constitutional intent right now.
The solution to the problem is to match recurring revenue with recurring necessary expenses via hard choices requiring fortitude not yet exhibited by the legislature nor demonstrated by the administration. We might all argue about what should be cut and what left alone, but, after 7 straight years of significant budget cuts any department head knowingly still wasting money should be summarily fired.