-—people, by choice, could receive a voucher for private schools instead of paying school taxes they would do so in numbers that would financially break the government system——
Govt school spending averages around $10k/child/yr. Higher in cities.$200k/yr/classroom of 20.
Most school choice plans include vouchers valued at half the per-pupil govt school expenditure. The amount is sufficient to cover the tuition of an inexpensive private school.
Govt schools would lose many students, at first. But competition would force improvement. The resulting system would look like the private college/state university system.
This system would be stable, and could last indefinitely. It would be very difficult to transition to a truly free market. But the possibility of jumping from our current system to a free market is non-existent.
I have serious doubts about this. Government involvement in college education is a complete disaster. The cost is exploding to the point where it's common to debate whether the cost of a college education will EVER pan out for the student.
The same would happen from elementary schools on up.
public schools everywhere, every year are howling for MORE MONEY. Vouchers would cut available funds so drastically they would collapse very quickly without huge tax increases.
And don't forget, the public pressure that will come from those that don't have kids and are not using the system at all. Where is their voucher? Why should they pay anything? If I take my kid out of the local elementary school and get a tax voucher for 5k how do you explain that to my neighbor who has no kids in school but still has to pay the full boat tax?
The Public school system is an unsustainable government cabal. It will collapse. Like a lot of things with big government, it's just taken many years to reach the breaking point. The good news is vouchers would accelerate the collapse and the move to totally private education.