Even more sad is the lethargy that monopoly inculcates among school teachers and administrators. When a school has a monopoly it has no competition. It gets funded each year by taxpayers, no matter what its success or failure. Its administrators have no financial incentive to hire better teachers, and actually have a DISincentive to purchasing tools and technologies that might come at the expense of administrators' and teachers' pay raises. The result - poorer facilities and teachers that are of less calibre than what a competitive environment would beget.
Vouchers can rapidly bring about a competitive environment in education.
Under a voucher system, the lion's share of the funding a school receives comes only WHEN a student enrolls. The more students interested in attending a particular school, the more revenue. With revenue largely dependent on attracting and satisfying more students, the school administrator is forced to improve quality of education instead of being complacent. This is not just mere theory. Private schools that cannot keep their enrollments up have no government to back them up.