Ideally, that would be my preference. I'm not sure how we get there from here. I think it would have to go hand in hand with a total libertarian reform of government, a radical downsizing of it.
Actually, I shudder at the idea of completely privatized education. Maybe I should've put an emoticon in there.
I was just trying to point out how odd it is to describe school vouchers, i.e. government-issued funds, equal for everyone and only usable for one particular form of service, as anything approaching "the private sector" or "market-driven".
It's a half-measure approach that on the one hand acknowledges that people should have a universal right to education, yet on the other hacks away at that right for many children. At least the folks who advocate fully private education are consistent in their logic: their position is that education is not an entitlement, period, and while I disagree with this position, I can understand it. The voucher system is the halfway position that has one foot in each boat, and because of this, doesn't satisfy either set of aims.
If education is an entitlement and a proper purpose of government, then measures that harm it, such as voucher systems, are a bad idea. If education is not an entitlement and should be properly provided by the free market, then government interferences in it, such as voucher systems, are a bad idea.
Vouchers are bad both ways. They're only good for those who would benefit from them directly, while letting the system as a whole suffer.
