There are several “studies” out there on vouchers. Depending on who is paying for the study, vouchers are either lousy or wonderful. Quoting a “study” without attribution so that a reader can investigate original sources for bias does nothing to advance an argument.

You do not make it clear how schools will manage to “choose” not to accept black students without violating federal law. Charging far above the voucher can segregate by income — but who is to say that parents of color who have the money would not find that such a school met their needs for exclusivity? Who is to say that some parents of color would not prefer that their children attend a school that was mono-racial?

There is really no way to tell what kind of schools would result from tossing education out into the open market and this is the true problem with the voucher program. It is a radical change to an existing system based on utopianism. The unintended consequences, the excesses, and the outliers could very end up being equal to the problems of public education.

Only in times of disaster or crisis could such a solution be put in place. Case in point is New Orleans where a voucher fed education system has developed ad hoc. Anecdotal evidence is that scores are higher — but who is to stay that the current population is not already self-selected for success?

It would be nice if there was an empirical study — too bad that all the institutions who have the money to fund it also have agendas.