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David, I think Betty Jane may have meant to ping you on her reply above, in answer to your question. I would like to comment on her points from a FL perspective as I believe she is in CO:

First is ignorance....

Here in FL, I believe the school districts are required by law to post on their school district web sites or elsewhere information about the special ed scholarsip/voucher program, and I believe when a school is failing, the local papers cover it extensively and the school must also provide info to the parents. (1) Now, do all parents receive what info is sent home? (2) Do all parents read what they get in the mail? (3) Can all parents read? I know the answers in some cases are (1) no, (2) no, and (3) no. Consequently, I believe in FL efforts are made, repeatedly, to inform parents, but, such efforts may not be successful.

Next is other people telling horror stories or guilting parents out of something different. People want to feel good about their choices.

I strongly agree with what Betty Jane said here. If the union spent just half as much genuinely trying to work with Gov Bush abd his policies as it does publicly complaining about him, FL would be #1 in education. Some of the media is no help either, because some media constantly presents a biased anti-school choice view, frightening people with inaccurate informatin. I will post a recent example later on this thread, and Gov Bush's letter to the editor.

Another thing is shear laziness in finding out about each school.

Yep. Some people who can read, and would be open to new ideas, are simply to lazy to find out.

One more thing is total faith in teachers.

This is a valid point too, even though I myself am a teacher. As much as I may try to accurately assess a student, and learn all about that student, a parent is the one who knows even more about the child. Also, as a teacher, I am not a doctor (as a doctor is the only one the parent should consult about drugs like Ritilin), and I refuse to offer an opinion about such matters. In addition, even an expert teacher, who means well, can be wrong in some matters. Just as doctors can be wrong. And lawyers can be wrong. It is possible and it does happen.

A teacher who is truly a professional will always try to work with a parent, and not against a parent. And, both the parent and the teacher can, and should be, on the same side, working for the benefit of: the student.

When this does happen, the student is well aware of the team effort -- and responds to school situations in a very different way than the student who knows the parent hates the school and teachers.

For that teacher, life can be a nightmare, even if the teacher is an outstanding teacher -- and, wants to work with the parent.