A few brief points...

There are some private schools that are barely getting by who, if they accepted government money, would have to make their buildings wheelchair-accessible, which would bankrupt them. So they don't want government money, either.

*** I won't go there on that topic.

Your typical voucher doesn't pay for the complete education cost of the extra student, unless the teacher is working for free. Her title is not Ms., Mrs. or Miss, but Sister. There aren't a lot of nuns out there anymore, either. Or you could employ the woman down the street with the GED who's near the end of her welfare benefits. How hard can it be to teach? All those unionized teachers do it all the time, and to read this board, one would think they are a special breed of imbecile.

*** I can only say that most parochial Catholic schools are staffed with lay person teachers. Here in MA, which has a somewhat decent public school system, except in Boston, these schools produce graduates with high college acceptance and high test scores. Including "minority" students. And yes, there's a selection factor here. Caring parents.

*** I missed the posts accusing teachers of being imbeciles.

And then there are taxpayers like me who would scream if one cent of her taxes went to support a segregated school teaching creationism in science class...

*** Dittos. A hot button. But we'll not see perfection in this world. Improvement, yes.

The teachers' unions have something to say about this too, but they are not the only, or even perhaps the principle, factor. Simple solutions to complex problems are, to put it simply, "simple".

*** Nobody claims it's the answer to a maiden's... er, the solution to everything. It's a step in the right direction. It makes things better. It empowers disadvantaged minority parents. It does not solve the situation where nobody is there to give a damn. The Teachers Unions need to think about the kids and not focus on jobs fro the members. Of course if they did that they'd be one of the only human orgs that behaves altruisticly.

-philw (not all problems can be solved, but many can be)