Skeeter,
Here's another off the hip response to your phased in voucher system.
I'm an avid supporter of the voucher system. I grew up in a family that revolved around education, including teachers, a school secretary, and a superintendent of a district. This provides me with some insight on the issue (emphasise some, maybe not that much (g)).
The premise of the voucher system is to extend the guiding hand of free markets, which best serve all income classes, to the education system. I don't believe your interest in doing this is best served by a hobbled attempt at balance.
For competition to work correctly in a free market, you need unrestrained supply and demand. Without them, you create imbalances that are exploited by the prevailing side. IE, supply side is constrained, as in medicine, utilities, etc., and you get artificially high prices that are detrimental to consumers. If demand is constrained, you are left with a lessened spark of ingenuity and competition that has propelled our country to it's leadership position and greatly enhanced our standard of living.
As a father, I'm not scared by the potential skyrocketing of tuition you project, because it won't happen. As a guy who can afford the best restaurant in town (not that often(g)), I'm sure glad we had a restaurant industry that was almost wholly unregulated and brought us McDonalds, as I eat there a lot.
Richard |
