Educational vouchers. I've been a big fan of the idea for a while now. With these guidelines in mind:?

Question

All public K-12 eduction will be funded exclusively thru a voucher sent to the parent/gaurdian. The parent will give that voucher to the school of their choice and the school can cash it.
There are no regulations or requirements except that the parents can receive no monetary reward (bribe) to send the kids to a school.
The schools must compete to convince the parents to send their kids.

All schools will be private, or public. Either way, it doesn't really matter. Some teachers will see large pay raises if they have many students who want to learn from them. Some teachers will be let go because they're just not gifted at teaching.

Some schools will close. New ones will open. There will be some abuse and some students will learn nothing, just like now. Many towns will see very little change. But for many it will be the chance to really learn from a motivated school. Empowering the parent seems like the ultimate solution. No one cares as much as the parents. Opinions?

Answer 1

I would still dislike vouchers, because they would still (in part) amount to a taxpayer subsidy of private schools. The voucher money would go from taxpayers to the government to parents to schools (in your plan, some to public schools and some to private schools). Skip the middlemen, and the money begins with the taxpayers and ends with the private schools.

If we really want to give poorer families access to private education, there are possibilities that would not require taxpayer involvement:
-Find ways to make private education less expensive
-Raise tuition rates and use the extra money to provide financial aid to families of poor students
-Take money that is being spent on political campaigns for vouchers and give it to private schools instead, so that they have less need for tuition money
-Streamline requirements for homeschooling (and education in general), so that parents have more flexibility in educating their children
-Reduce the hierarchy and regimentation of public schools, so that students there can actually learn (reducing the need to choose private schools)
-Reduce governmental spending, so parents have more money available to devote to their children's education
-and so on.

Answer 2

You left out the type of students. If there are a lot of students only interested in drugs and pimping and sex, it will destroy the school.