[Alberta's Child]

This may not be a popular idea among conservatives, but I've said for some time that school vouchers are not a good idea. Eventually the cure will be no better than the disease -- because these vouchers will have so many strings attached to them that we'll end up with private schools that are no better than their public counterparts.

[Aquinasfan]

Eventually the cure will be no better than the disease

This is the slippery-slope fallacy. Vouchers are a more just schooling system than the current system. The possibility of a less just schooling system arising in the future cannot be used to justify preventing the establishment of a more just schooling system now.

-- because these vouchers will have so many strings attached to them that we'll end up with private schools that are no better than their public counterparts.

This is the worst case scenario. Even in this worst case, parents will still be able to send their children to unregulated, non-voucher-redeeming private schools.

Regardless, there is reason to believe that private schools will be less vulnerable to government regulation under a voucher program than currently because under a voucher program participating parents will fight to prevent the regulation of their schools. Parents participating in the voucher program will represent a much larger interest group than the number of parents who currently send their children to private schools.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

we'll end up with private schools that are no better than their public counterparts.

That is hyperbole IMHO. If the private schools which accept vouchers are no better than public schools they will go out of business; granted that the vouchers may and, if Ted Kennedy has any say in the matter will, have undesirable strings. But the Kennedys of the world are on the defensive on the fundamental issue of ceasing to seperate responsibilty from authority in education.

When a college sends out the bills for tuition it does not address the envelope to anyone but the parents of the students, and no public school educrat is willing to pay that bill for you. And that proves that it is not the educrat but the parent who is responsible for the child's education. If the parents - especially black parents who are the bedrock support of the Democratic resistance to uniting responsibility with authority - demand to have authority commensurate with their responsibility then vouchers will come. The battle will continue on the issue of educrat regulation of voucher-supported schools, but IMHO toney private schools will continue as they have without accepting vouchers at all.