JS Online: Vouchers spur lasting achievement gains in MPS schools, study says
I think school vouchers are a good test of the belief that public services can be improved by regulated privatization, in the form of school choice plans that force the public schools to perform or lose funding. Naturally teachers' uniions are dead against any such program, and against any other law that would hold them accountable in any way, shape, or form for accomplishing anything at all. They are even against having teachers tested to see if they are competent to teach their subjects. It's pretty simple: either we try school vouchers and give parents choice, coupled with mandatory standardized testing so they can make intelligent choices, or the big-city public schools will never get better. They might even get worse, which in the case of Chicago, Milwaukee, the District of Columbia, and a few other systems might seem impossible but isn't.