Supporters maintain that won't happen, In fact, says the Mackinac Center's Joe Overton, there are already examples from charter schools where public schools that initially lost students and funding responded by becoming more sensitive to parental concerns, and by doing so won back significant numbers of kids. Yes, they're taking a financial hit, but that's causing them to take a closer look a their operations, and whether they are satisfying parental desires, and that is causing them to improve their schools. Overton, who has spent considerable time debating this issue, easily volleys every criticism hurled his way. But sometimes it is difficult separating the rhetoric from the reality. He laughs, for instance, when the point of limited choice is brought up.
Opponents say that parental choice is illusory.
They accept who they want to accept. Overton counters that it is not realistic to expect that every student who applies to a private school will be accepted. The private sector infrastructure is finite. New schools are expensive to build. It seems only reasonable to expect large numbers of kids already in private schools to benefit from vouchers.