Megan McArdle has written a great post on school vouchers.  Here are some hightlights:

5) Vouchers destroy the public school system So? Having a public school system seems like a dumb goal to me, but even assuming that the very existence of such a system is somehow a worthy thing to aim for, surely it’s achievement should be a second-order priority. The primary goal, it seems to me, should be educating America’s children to reach their fullest potential; after that goal has been achieved, we can turn our attention to things like having teacher’s unions and public schools.

There’s something very odd about the way that a lot of people treat health care and schooling–as if they were special, magical goods that can only be provided by the government. Yes, these are vital goods that people are ill-equipped to evaluate. But food, shelter, and clothing are even more vital, yet few of us believe that this means we should all get our produce from giant collective farms, or move into public housing projects. We recognize that the way to ensure that everyone has what they need is to give them the money to buy it . . . and, arguably, to have building codes, the FDA, the USDA, and so forth to ensure that consumers are protected from hidden dangers.

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 6) There aren’t enough private schools Right. Do you realize that in 1995, not a single iPod had been manufactured? That must mean that the iPod I am currently holding in my hand doesn’t actually exist! I’m living a lie . . .

The fact that there are not now enough private schools to educate kids doesn’t mean that there won’t be, if we offer to pay private schools to educate kids.

9) I don’t want my tax dollars used to pay for religious education Waaaaaaah. The fundamentalist down the block doesn’t want his tax dollars used to pay for teaching evolution. I don’t want my tax dollars used for 97% of the things my tax dollars are used for; welcome to representative democracy. And in Catholic schools, where most of the vouchers would be used, the religious education is voluntary; lots of non-Catholic kids go there without being proselytized. If this bothers you that much, we can discuss requiring schools that accept vouchers to make religious education optional.

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11) There’s no way to assure the quality of private schools Ha. Ha. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Seriously? The problem with private schools is that they can’t match the same level of quality we’ve come to expect from our urban public school system? And what else have you learned in your visit to our planet?