Although my wife is a teacher in a public high school, she has no quarrel with my opposition to the public school monopoly.  We both know that there will always be a market for a good music instructor, her chosen field.   Every school, public and private, is a potential employer.  Not to mention all those churches who would love to sign her on as organist and music director.  So she's not rabidly "public schools and nothing else," as so many of her fellow teachers apparently are.

There was, in fact, a private school vying for her services when we moved to Atlanta two years ago.  Unfortunately, they didn't pay anywhere near what the public schools do, and the rest is history.  She does what she can, and has many devoted students.  

All of us liberty-minded types have a good grasp of the horrible disservice that public schools do to kids (and parents, and teachers), so I won't belabor the point.  I am convinced that the nation would be very well served if every public school were to disband THIS SUMMER, and sell their land and classrooms to the highest bidder, with next fall's classes completely up for grabs, whatever the market might offer, and with no coercive taxation used to support schools of any kind.  But . . . I must have caught a whiff of some funny smoke for a moment, because that's not gonna happen.  Not this year, anyway.  Hell, we'll probably end the drug war long before we disband public schools. 

So, we're left with whatever long-term and short-term strategies we can come up with to chip away at the monolith.  One alternative very much in the news today is vouchers.  What about them?  Do they help or hurt?

On the one hand, vouchers ease the most pressing problem that parents face when they would like to move their children out of public schools: paying twice.  Now, in theory, the same tax dollars may be applied to a private school of the parents' choice.

On the other hand, as many have pointed out, government dollars always come with government strings attached.  The same bureaucrats who have saddled public schools with absurd rules and top-heavy, costly administration, will now want to stick their noses into the practices of every private school that receives government funds, and try to make them meet the same "standards" that public schools must.

There is no doubt whatever that this will take place.  What is not at all clear (at least, to me) is whether parents can insist that the nose-stickers back off.  Since the decision will be a political one, the odds are probably not very good.  The public school lobby is huge, and is run by people who I have no doubt would love to see vouchers fail.  That is, they would like the recipient schools to be so dragged down by the same crap that they themselves have to deal with, that the results will be spectacularly poor. 

(I'm still trying to understand the motivation here.  The only explanation that seems to fit is that a majority of public school teachers believe that they are not capable of competing in a free market.  If true, that is very sad.  Another possibility is that there is a "silent majority" of public teachers who do not fear change.  If so, I wish they'd speak up!  My wife does talk with her fellow teachers about the subject, but I'm not sure how many she has brought around.)

Of course, even if by some magic stroke all public school teachers could be made to see the advantages of a free market in schooling, there are many other entrenched bureaucrats for whom change would mean having to face the terrible prospect of getting a "real" job. 

Therefore what?  If the standardizers have their way, it's possible that vouchers will be a disaster, resulting in the perception that public schools are as good as it can get, much in the same way that the electric power fiasco in California has been offered as "proof" that "deregulation doesn't work."

Still, on balance, I am glad that the Supreme Court has upheld the Constitutionality of vouchers.  At the very least, it will cause screaming among people who really deserve to scream.  And it might open the way to more substantial changes, if the results are generally perceived to be good.

Let's all keep a close watch on the meddlers, and shine a bright light upon them whenever they rear their ugly heads.