One of the biggest feats that the Right could hope for is to demolish the public school system. If they could simply keep their children in private schools (or even homeschooled), they could more easily accomplish a desecularization of our society. I am opposed to that with every fiber of my being.
This is why a voucher system is one of the core planks in the Right’s platform. If they could make sure that only the worst students remain in the public school system, it will have very little choice but to collapse, and they’ll be right there with a faith-based curriculum to ensure that they get the youth while they’re young. In fact, I believe the controversy around the use of Ritalin to treat children with ADD/ADHD is related to this. Part of the public distrust of Ritalin use can be traced back to a smear campaign by organizations tied to the Religious Right. And if affected kids aren’t treated, it’s one more way to make the public school system look like a stinking pile of Failure. And because private schools can cherry-pick their students, this makes the private schools look like they’re doing an artifically good job, and makes the public schools look artifically bad. (Yes, there are Lefties who also oppose Ritalin use, but their approach doesn’t have the same emphasis on denying access for others.)
But anyway, how does this relate to vouchers? I think vouchers make it appear easier to just let the public system collapse, rather than have to fix it. Like people above me said, the best schools have waiting lists. They can choose who to let in – it’s a matter of supply and demand. The solution is not to just let all the kids go to the best schools, it’s to help the worst schools succeed – and “no child left behind” is making that worse rather than better.
@Hypocrisy_Central, I understand your idea is to voucher all children, and I believe your solution is headed to the right place on the wrong road. The best schools don’t have room for every kid that wants in – and it’s misguided to believe that the worst schools would be left empty and the best ones would still be just as good with double or triple the student load. Plus (and this is why I went into my opposition to vouchers up there), a voucher system could be misused by the very people who have the most interest in demolishing the public school system. Once you divorce schools from having to be accountable to certain standards set by We The People (through our representatives) and allow them to teach whatever they deem appropriate, sure, you’ll have some decent schools, but you’ll get some awfully wacky ones as well.
The source of some of my information and ideas is The Fundamentals of Extremism: The Christian Right in America, edited by Kimberly Blake. I recommend it for anyone interested in reading more.