I'm not sure how giving public money to private or quasi-private institutions with little control over how they select their staff or students can be seen as a positive way forward. Certainly the research shows no proven benefit (although I'll leave that fuller argument to Diane Ravitch). That said, two points on the issue of voucher funds would seem germain.
First, vouchers are not just a return of the amount that a particular parent or guardian has contributed to the education pool - they contain contributions of everyone in that wider community.
Second, as a society we've already accepted the proposition that some things are above personal choice - whether that be contributing collectively for roads, or the military, or emergency services. We all contribute, nominally based on our ability to pay, and take what we need in the form of service as and when we need it, and irrespective of the amount we've paid in. (If only we could add health care to that list !!).
Education used to be on that same list - that is, until the forces of commercialisation, businessification, and privatisation really started to kick in a couple of decades ago. To pay out of that community fund instead, and pay more than the individuals themselves paid in, makes no sense - it will not help the majority, the poorest, the weakest, those 'hardest to profit from' that the selective schools don't want. What's more, it only further serves to weaken a system already under sustained attack..
Plus, if we can say it's a moral right to excuse a handful of parents from paying into this community fund, then why can't we allow the same right to people who do not wish to fund the death penalty, or to fund war ? Logically, if you're pro-vouchers, then surely you must be pro-vouchers in all three cases ? If not, then one can only deduce that the core argument for vouchers is political, and not philosophical.
Last, I'd suggest that education doesn't need 'fixing' as much as the communities that schools operate within do - in as much as fixing poverty, fixing inequality, fixing the 1%, and excise the right-wing "you're fired !" macho mentality from all, but especially public-service employment practice, are the real barriers to success that we need o'ercome.
Show me a community where children grow up without insecurity of food, of shelter, and of safety, and where music, arts and parks are an everyday experience and I'll show you a good school. Connect the dots. No vouchers needed.
