Vouchers are bad under the axiom "The separation of school
and state is as important as the separation of church and state." Vouchers
are unconstitutional for the same reason government schools are unconstitutional
(or should be).
Today, the government owns and operates most schools
and there is constant political debate about how the government should handle
myriad non-educational issues within the schools. Imagine if the government
owned and operated most churches and there was constant political debate
about how the government should handle myriad non-religious issues within
government churches (dress codes, cell phones, drug testing, sex ed, discrimination,
forced busing to integrate churches, etc). Would the media and the citizenry
advocate that the issues be solved by privatizing the churches, removing
government from the churches, and championing the separation of church and
state? Apparently not. If the popular reasoning regarding schools is followed,
the media and citizenry would merely advocate that socialized churches adopt
various policies that are the most "popular" or considered to be the most
"reasonable." Other people, instead of creating the First Amendment,
would instead advocate a voucher program where every child would receive government
funding for his church. The same disaster would result.
Today, antidisestablishmentarianism causes the media
and citizenry to ignore the conflict between liberty and government schools,
just as others ignored the same conflict with government churches.
The failure to understand the difference between privatizing
government schools and "reforming" socialized schools is a fundamental failure
to understand freedom. A cynic would say it is more proof of the the failure
of government schools. As libertarians and objectivists say,
the population suffers from a governmentality that makes it governmentally
disturbed. Children in public schools are governmentally retarded. Thanks
to government schools, socialism has become the state religion and no one
sees the key libertarian issue.
Many people have been mistreated and segregated by
government schools. They have constantly struggled to correct government
schools. Imagine if everyone who had been mistreated or segregated by government
schools had instead advocated the separation of school and state, and had
withdrawn from government schools, and had switched to private schools or
had formed their own private schools. They would have done better than they
have done by staying in government schools. They would have academically
surpassed the people they left behind in public schools. They would have
enjoyed true freedom, including true religious freedom, even in their schools.
Their actions would have been much more historical, revolutionary and inspiring
than the constant struggle to correct government schools. It would have been
a story as historical, revolutionary and inspiring as was the separation
of church and state, and the end of government churches.
It's not too late for the separation of school and
state.