Study shows voucher programs improve public schools
Here is a study by Harvard economics professor Caroline M. Hoxby titled "School choice and school competition: Evidence from the United States," that says "public schools do respond constructively to competition, by raising their achievementa nd productivity." Also, "students' achievement generally does rise when they attend voucher or charter schools," and "not only do currently enacted voucher and charter school programs not cream-skim; they disproportionately attract students who were performing badly in their regular public schools."

The experiments with school vouchers could turn out to be a major event. With many big-city public school systems being nothing more than horribly expensive, dangerous, and educationally-bankrupt holding tanks, and getting worse every day, this approach is at least worth trying. If evidence is coming in showing that the experiment may be good for private and public schools, it is a good thing all around. But watch for the teachers' unions and the schools of education to freak out over this study anyway.