You can have diversity without turning education into a for-profit hellscape.

Who said schools have to be for profit? In my state we have vouchers, and most voucher money goes to schools operated by not-for-profits. We also have charter schools, and most of those are operated by for-profit companies. Either way, they offer a way to get kids into a better environment/institution than trying to fix a failing public school system.

How long have you had vouchers, and what is the long term trend.

12-13 years. They work.

Uh-huh. 13 years doesn't make me feel even a little confidant you've proven they work. The arc of social changes are long.

The biggest risk is the status quo - kids forced to spend 13 years in failing schools is guaranteed to get the same results.

Vouchers are generally used at existing private and parochial schools, who do meet state education standards, and frankly, usually vastly outperform public schools on education outcomes... and in many cases offer opportunities outside the classroom that public schools can't really match (i.e. many elementary schools in Indiana don't offer arts, sports, scouting and other clubs where the private/parochial schools do) Most often those schools have been outperforming the local public schools for decades. It's really low risk and has been nothing but wonderful for the kids.

The charter schools are much more risky - they are much more like business startups, and many fail. But, again the worse risk of all is entrusting thousands of kids for 13 years to failing education systems, and that is the alternative.

False choice. It’s not failing system vs vouchers. It’s failing system vs vouchers vs fixing system.

You’re advocating for a solution to failing system, but it’s not the only one. And frankly, it’s likely it’s worse now than it was 13 years ago… i can think of one possible explanation why

> fixing system.

Kids don't have 20 years to wait for laws to change, demographics to shift, politicians to retire and local attitudes to change. They are in school for 13 years.

> False choice.

Nope, vouchers give families a choice. Doing nothing gives no choice.

Kids don’t have 20 years to wait for some voucher bill to pass, and then new schools to open up and then bad ones close down and better ones open up, all while social infrastructure develops to circulate good information about outcomes so parents can make informed choices, and backstop laws and bills to prevent islands of no-schooling or no-good-schooling to be passed either.

Both solutions take time. One solution injects a whole lot of the worst capitalist incentives into education (grift, hype, profiteering), the other doesn’t.

I went to a small private school in a low income area. No one in my school was wealthy. Tuition was low. The school was a non-profit. You are spreading FUD.

Your anecdote doesn’t prove or disprove anything. Like a particularly snowy winter doesn’t disprove global warming.