Parents who think their kids might get a better education don't care about profits being made. The race thing isn't so easy either. For minorities stuck in urban schools, a voucher can be a ticket into a suburban school.
> For those states that already have a voucher system, I would
start in a
series of law suits to force the private schools to provide both
facililites and programatic access to disabled children who are
otherwise qualified and wish to use the voucher system. This is a
little Machiavellian in that the point would be to break the
voucher system by removing its profits, by requiring them to
duplicate the mandated accessibility standards that public
institutions are required to fulfill. It would take some very
commited disabled kids and their parent to pull this off--but
they are out there--it
would be a matter of mobilizing them and supporting them in such
a
fight. Consider it something like a Brown v. Board of Ed on
wheels. >
Education of the disabled is already 'voucherized' in some places. In the District and in Maryland, for instance, parents can oblige the public school system to pay the costs of private education of their child, if she/he qualifies as disabled and they can show the public school is inadequate to his or her special needs. Under vouchers something similar would probably happen (to little effect, since as noted these kids' education has already been privatized).
> It's hard to think of a rightwing attack on public institutions
that I
hate more than the voucher system. >
How about home schooling?
mbs