Maybe I should say you don't know your sociology. Polticians do what the people with money want they to do. Vouchers have gone nowhere because
the voters with money are not in favor ot it. High schools weere originally designed for the top ten percent of students and those students whose Families are in the top ten percent income level will live in school districts which do a good job of preparing students for college. So longer as their children do not suffer from the quality of schooling, most of these families could give a rat's a---about public schools in general. For those in the district who have no children, they know that appearance is what counts, so that if the system LOOKS good enough to keep property values up and continues to attract up and coming young familes, they also could care less. Much the same thing was true 100 years ago. Some things don't change.
That is exactly how it works. However, I was reading my home town paper and some interesting things are happening with NCLB. Some failing schools in Ohio are now jeopardizing even more tax dollars. Seems the state of Ohio will now have to pay the tuition of students from these failing schools to enter schools of choice. This inspired the children of local private schools to enroll their students for as little as one day in a failing school so they can get their tuition paid for next year! I love loopholes!