Vouchers, Again

I really don't think Megan McArdle's understood what I was saying about vouchers. Giving families more choice about which school to attend: Good idea. Public money without public accountability: Bad idea. Ergo, charter schools are a good idea. Alternatively, you could call it "vouchers" but add a lot of regulations that institutions accepting the vouchers were required to submit to. That's my general take. In terms of specific proposals, you have to look at specifics. In DC, for example, a sufficiently generous voucher would, if not limited to poor families, probably do a lot to decrease the volume of young professionals moving to the suburbs to raise kids. That, in turn, would have various second-order consequences (on taxes, on property values) that one would have to think about. It's probably worth considering, but DC's in pretty unusual circumstances.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/03/vouchers-again/41737/