[enraged_camel]

Because that privilege costs a ton of money that only the upper middle class and the elite can comfortably afford?

That said, i agree with imbracio: parents' primary responsibility is to ensure their kids get a good education, rather than worrying about fixing a system that is unfit able in its current state.

[danielweber]

A private school education is not really expensive in most of the country. Think around $5000 a year. I know that's not pocket-change to many people, but you hardly need to be "upper middle class" to do it.

[natrius]

It'd be within the reach of more families if they could take the money that would be going towards their child in the assigned public schools with them to the school of their choice. I don't understand why that idea became a partisan one.

[argv_empty]

Most of the objections I heard were about putting that public money towards religious schooling (the interaction of government and religion being a fairly well-established as a partisan issue).

[danielweber]

I'm not necessarily supporting the concept, but this seems a strained objection. It's equivocating the word "public." People who get social security (which comes from the government, and so is just as "public") can use it for religious causes and no one bats an eye.

And SCOTUS has approved vouchers funded via tax credits.

[icelancer]

>Because that privilege costs a ton of money that only the upper middle class and the elite can comfortably afford?

It's almost like people should take some responsibility for their kids' futures instead of handing them over to the state and saying "Well free education is right there, it better be damn good!" Doesn't work that way.

(This coming from a guy who went to a not-very-good public school and plans on sending his kids to public school, mind you.)

[schreiaj]

What about the case of homeschooling? I'm not familiar enough with the economics of it to say it is cheaper than private schooling. I do, however, know quite a few families that have taken this route and I wouldn't classify them as upper middle class or elite.

Having worked with numerous schools over the last decade I feel there are some serious problems that we as a society need to fix. I do feel that there are other options that are available to parents though.

[jessaustin]

The best solution to this unfairness is to give everyone a choice in which school their children attend, by instituting publicly-funded vouchers for every student.