I received an email from a good friend of mine, who happens to be a staunch conservative, expousing the virtues of school voucher programs. He based his support on the idea that competition will improve pubic schools, and will help families afford to send their shildren to private schools.

Public schools, because they are public, are socialistic, and were never  intended to engage in competition. If competition is needed to improve public schools, let us simply improve them, cooperatively, as a community, in exactly the same way that competition with privates schools, in theory, would.

I have no objection to private schools. They are great. The more the merrier. But is it necessary to regard them as "competing" with public schools?...perhaps we could see to it that they work together, for the same goals.

Private schools are free enterprise capitalism, and capitalism should not be interfered with by the goverment, say my conservative friends. Where do vouchers come from?  (the gov)....