Public and private schools operate under different sets of regulations regarding standards, access, curriculum, teacher certification and nondiscrimination. Public schools must educate all, including those who require special education, bilingual education or have many other needs. The notion that vouchers will ensure parental choice is a myth. Private school administrators will continue to select those students they wish to enroll. In fact, most of the money for vouchers will go to those already enrolled in private schools.
School choice is meaningless where there are no private schools accessible to some students.
Voucher programs are prohibitively expensive due to start-up funding and administrative expense, and the high costs for students who are already going to private schools. Voucher programs siphon off limited public school revenues needed for smaller classes, teacher training, books and materials, and the academic support services known to improve learning environments. The most recent efforts to sell vouchers as a program to help inner city students has been a brilliant ruse. But the evidence of such inner city voucher programs is mixed. When class, education, income are held constant, it is not at all clear that students do better in private or religious schools.