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I'll let people decide whether they want these mandates to continue or to re-examine many of them. My whole point is public education teachers/schools are being vilified by something they never had any control over. Quite frankly, I'm rather sick of it. It is unfair to pick children based on openings in a school due to funds/staffing/room etc....and not apply it to public schools. That in itself is an uneven playing field and a set up to destroy public schools by slowly depleting their funds. What you are basically going to end up with is a stratified system. Posh schools for the rich, subpar schools for the middle class and crap schools for the throw aways and all of these schools will be publicly funded. The whole reason for this type of arrangement was suppose to be to bring up student outcomes. That hasn't happened yet in the US and it certainly hasn't happened in Chile who put such a voucher program into place years ago based on the theory parent choice will save the educational system and bring up student outcomes for all.
First, the eventuality you describe as an outcome is already here. I agree that blaming teachers and individual schools is misguided, what should be vilified is the system which created the problem. Namely, the bureaucracy.
Abstract
In 1981, Chile introduced nationwide school choice by providing vouchers to any student wishing to
attend private school. As a result, more than 1000 private schools entered the market, and the private
enrollment rate increased by 20 percentage points, with greater impacts in larger, more urban, and wealthier
communities. We use this differential impact to measure the effects of unrestricted choice on educational
outcomes. Using panel data for about 150 municipalities, we find no evidence that choice improved average
educational outcomes as measured by test scores, repetition rates, and years of schooling. However, we find
evidence that the voucher program led to increased sorting, as the best public school students left for the
private sector. http://www.columbia.edu/~msu2101/HsiehUrquiola(2006).pdf
Bingo, increased sorting. That is all is led to....hardly surprising.
Have you ever been to Argentina? I have, the only civilization that exists is within the large, urban, wealthier areas. Out in the country side, it's straight third world with inhabitants with markedly different expectations. It's not the same as the good ol' USA.