There is no incentive for private concerns to build and staff a school beyond a)religion-based education (i.e. Catholic school) b) profit or c) creating an institution by which the priviledged will ensure that their children recieve an education which will gurantee them entrance to one of the nation's top colleges (i.e. exclusive east-coast private schools)
None of these are good models for mass education.
Religious organizations cannot be responsible for mass education for the reason that not every student would subscribe to the religion that is promoted at the school, therefore their civil rights would be violated if they were forced to attend such a school. (For instance, can you imagine how Catholic parents would feel if their children were forced to go to a school which actively promoted the Southern Baptist Convention or Mormonism?)
For profit organizations are in the business of maximizing their shareholder value, not providing a quality education for the masses. Their educational philosophy would inevitably be driven by a profit-loss mentality that preclude them from taking the student's needs into account first. (i.e. Instead of providing nutritious, USDA recommended foods, we will outsource our cafeteria to Pizza Hut. I recognize that this is occurring today in public schools, I'm simply saying that it would undoubtedly be even more prevelant in for-profit private schools which existed on a mass scale.)
And the third model cannot be used for obvious reasons. (Not every parent can afford the twenty thousand dollar plus tuitions that those schools charge.)
Public schools may not be a great solution, but they are the best one we have for delivering education to the masses.
Rather then abandon public education, we need to radically reform it and make it less top-heavy, more responsive and more responsible. We need more classrooms, more teachers, fewer bureaucrats and more money for quality textbooks and supplies. Furthermore, we need to attract a better quality of teacher to the field of public education. (A good model for doing this is for the government to forgive a large amount of student loans for those who recieve high marks in college and are willing to sign multi-year contracts with a public school.)
It's always amazing to me that there are people who think that businesses that don't cater to the needs of their customers can survive. You are willing to trust career bureaucrats with education (despite the fact that on balance they have failed miserably for many years) but you won't trust some greedy capitalist. I can't figure this out.
And what's the most important thing at a public school to a lefty? Why it's the food they serve at lunch! If the school SELLS (No food should be given away.) food the parents don't want their kids to have or if the food is overpriced, the parents can provide lunch for the kids the way mine did for me, and we did (mostly) for ours.
ML/NJ