That s dangerous, says Friedman. Because it keeps control in Washington s hands. Local and state governments are closer, so they should be the ones to give the vouchers. Some voucher advocates want vouchers equal in amount to what states and localities now spend on schools. Wrong, says the professor.
Most private schools do the job for less money than government does.
Let the market work. And let parents pay some of the cost. All customers need to know the value of what they re buying. Today the voucher movement is a small one, with a few proj-ects concentrated in Milwaukee, Cleveland, and New York. But then, the derivatives market was a tiny thing when Friedman first started pondering it, in the early 1970s.