The first and most commonly heard criticism of vouchers is that they will siphon off the best and the brightest, so that the inner city public schools will be left with only the poor and otherwise educationally disadvantaged children. Of course, the fact is that today the only group which is not able to escape a rotten school is the poor. Wealthier parents can already exercise choice by moving to a better neighborhood, or by paying tuition at private schools. Unfortunately, though, racism does play an unadmitted role in the other side of the debate over vouchers. Yet the fact is that in a true free market of educational services, there would be no need for anyone to flee their neighborhoods.
Entrepreneurs go to where their market exists.
The implication here is that it is impossible to have high-quality education occurring in any classroom regulated by the state. The fact is, there are some great public schools and some lousy private schools. Without the benefits of free-market competition, however, there is little if any incentive to expand the number of the former or eliminate the latter. The rules that actually produce a successful school are the same for everyone everywhere. To do so, however, requires a tremendous amount of effort and commitment by everyone involved.