I'll let the Republicans = racists crack alone. Don't make me remind you that it was Democrats who stood in schoolhouse doors and passed Jim Crow laws, and Republicans that actually got civil rights laws passed over the strident objections of a number of Democrats.

Don't have much to add to some of the great responses here, but you need to face a fact:

Schools should be a "consumer item." That is, where someone pays to receive a value, and if he does not, he can easily go elsewhere to get what he needs. The fact that many people consider the words "consumer item" to be a form of curse is quite revealing. An exercise for the student: what is the opposite of a "consumer item?"

The food I eat, the cars I drive, the house I buy, and many other things essential to life are "consumer items." When something stops being a "consumer item" and disassociates itself from market forces is when you start to run into trouble. Public schools fall into this category, and medical care is getting there rapidly.

Why on God's green earth should a service be considered "more accountable" because there is an elected body associated with it? Is this what experience tells us? There is NOTHING that is more accountable than a market-based service with competitors waiting in the wings.

I could go into statistics, and other long-winded things on the voucher concept, but think about this one thing:

Opponents of vouchers have one overriding fear, and they have specifically mentioned it: that if given any choice at all, parents and students would flee the public school system in hordes like rats jumping from a burning ship.

Does this tell you anything at all?

It reveals much about the motivations of the public school bureaucracy and the mindset of the liberal that they think it would be preferable that everyone get a crappy education than to allow some kids to get a better one.