# School Choice and Vouchers **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 25, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908 "2009-06-25T03:28:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Airbeck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/airbeck/32/6574_2.png) [@Airbeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airbeck)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/61 "2009-06-25T20:44:50Z")
Well you asked why you couldn’t send your child to a different school, and then talked about “forcing” everyone into the same classes. I was simply pointing out that you can, in fact, send your children wherever you like, and that noone is forcing every child into the same classes. From your post it sounded like you didn’t feel that you had free will in this or something, like some state-employed thugs were strong arming you and forcing your kids to go to the public school. We’re just saying that if you want to send your child to a “better” school, then just do so. But why should taxpayers pay for you to send your kid to the “better” school, when not everyone else has that option. ---
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/62 "2009-06-25T20:53:02Z")
> [@Airbeck](#): > > From your post it sounded like you didn’t feel that you had free will in this or something, like some state-employed thugs were strong arming you and forcing your kids to go to the public school. Context…context. “Force” is used in the sense that financial costs are different. If vouchers (a refund on tax payment) is not available, I’m “forced” to send kids to the same school without additional payment. The “force” is based on burden of cost differences. Force is not based on some invisible energy shield that paralyzes me from taking my child to a different school. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/63 "2009-06-25T20:58:20Z")
> [@Ruminator](#): > > Dangerosa, I appreciate that you’re the most well-spoken in arguing your side. You’ve written several long posts so this is obviously a topic that matters. > > What I don’t understand is why my goals in educating my child has to also take into account the bi-polar child. Why can’t I place my “normal” child in a different class (a different school) that’s not disrupted by bi-polar children without financial penalty (voucher)? Why is that evil? > > Parents make decisions on who their kids interact with (babysitters, doctors, etc) . Why should schooling be any different? > > I guess the dirty hidden question is: Do we as society “owe” something to the welfare of those bi-polar kids? I guess one could argue that we do. But I say we don’t frame the “solution” in terms of forcing everyone into the same school whether they want to or not. I think you should be able to put your normal kid into a normal school without a bi-polar child - I just don’t think the government should fund that through a PRIVATE school option - that particular little girl should be in a different PUBLIC school than my children. Mainstreaming drives me batty. Always has. And this is pure selfishness on my part. There isn’t a private school we’d consent to send our kids to within an easy drive. There are three Christian schools where my kids can learn about Jesus and not learn about dinosaurs. We both work and we don’t have time to drive our kids to private schools - this isn’t a matter of money, its a matter of logistics. I’m not sure why my kids should get chased out of a school with great teachers, where their friends go, with an ethnic and cultural diversity I love, where 90% of the kids are fine and where they have friends, because 10% of the kids are problematic and using 60% of the resources. And that is what I see happening. Eventually, I won’t have a choice because the “good kid” and the “good parents” will be chased out. And I’ll add an hour or two onto my day in the car getting my kids to school. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/64 "2009-06-25T22:36:58Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I’m confused by one facet of vouchers. Critics say that this means less money for the school district. I get that. However, if they have fewer students because they’re going elsewhere, they don’t really need that money. Am I missing something? > > Odesio > PS: This is an honestly asked question and not a leading one meant to make some grand point. Well, that criticism also applies to charter schools. One of the concerns there is cherrypicking. It is a lot cheaper to educate 100 able bodied kids who have the right attitude and involved parents than it is to educate 100 disabled disaffected kids with abesntee parents. If you have charter schools and vouchers, the public school system ends up with the most expensive kids. There are all sorts of other ciriticisms of chater schools and even more of voucher systems. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/65 "2009-06-25T22:52:48Z")
> [@furlibusea](#): > > The real issues involve poverty, hunger, broken families, a 50% rate of employment for African American males within the city, poorly designed welfare systems and even worse welfare reforms, joblessness, hopelessness, lead poisoning, drug addiction and a host of other problems that are difficult to fix with slogans. There are all sorts of issues with public education but none of the issues you mention seems to be something that can be handled by education reform. For me the most imoprtant part of a public education is that every child gets a good education regardless of their ability to pay. Lets not think of charter school programs as “applying free market principles to yet another problem just for the sake of applying free market principles” lets just think of it as “just enough competition to shake up the educational establishment” Teachers unions have developed to the point where they don’t really care about students as much as they care about teacher job security. The DC school chancellor recently offered DC teachers up to $100K+/year in pay if they gave her the right to fire ineffective teachers. They said, no thank you. Its not like we have too many teachers and she was trying to cut back on payroll, in fact we have too few and need to hire more but they would not give up their job security. In the meanwhile charter schools are all oversubscribed and pumping out significantly higher graduation rates and significantly more college bound seniors than the DC schools. At first you might be concerned about cherrypicking by the charter schools or that there is some sort of self selection going on but the overall graduation rate in DC has improved and the over number of college bound seniors has increased. So while there may be some self selsection and cherry-picking, the DC student body as a whole is doping better. It seems like a pareto-optimal result. I am very very leery of any claims of massive improvements “if only we wold let the free market work its magic” but in this case, I think a little healthy competition is well… healthy. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/66 "2009-06-25T22:53:57Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Vouchers are wrong for two very fundamental reasons: > > 1. They are based upon a false assumption (the assumption that the money the government is willing to spend on educating their child should belong to them as “the” taxpayer), and > > 2. They are inherently incompatible with the notion of socialized education, since they are based upon free-market principles. > > If society wishes to stop educating children on a “socialized” model, and wants to turn the concept over to free-market forces, then it needs to make that decision, not try to create a free-market in education through the back door, hamstringing the ability of the socialized system to accomplish its mission. Do you distinguish ebtween vouchers and charter schools? My problem with Vouchers is that it simply subsidizes people sending their kids to Andover. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/67 "2009-06-25T22:57:23Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > I went to one of those schools. But how about we work on making sure that all schools have similar opportunities, rather than a few schools are great. And I don’t really have an issue with magnet programs - not everyone is interested in college level English Literature in high school, or having an orchestra. But generally, I’d rather see resources going towards making bad schools good than moving kids around to great schools. DC is one of the most resource rich school districts in the country and simply increasing the budget doesn’t seem to have done the trick. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/68 "2009-06-25T23:05:19Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > So even highly successful voucher programs like the one in DC get shut down. What highly successful voucher program in DC. We have a scholarship program that Republicans like to call a voucher program but it is only available to really poor kids that get into really good private schools like Sidwell Friends and Georgetown Day. General voucher programs are a terrible idea. > [@](#): > > As for vouchers creating more classrooms, schools, administration, and support personnel, I thought that lowering class sizes was a major goal of public school reform advocates? Higher teacher-to-student ratios? That also means more schools, more teachers, and more support staff. But that’s all good so long as it’s all controlled by the government and the teacher’s unions. But as soon as its done through the market, oh my God it’s a big problem. In DC, the charter school initiative has led to shutting down a bunch of schools by the school chancellor. The communities all cried bloody murder when she shut down their neighborhood schools. She is appointed and fully backed by the DEMOCRATIC mayor of DC (and she serves as his pleasure) has spent a lot of trouble to jump through a ton of hoops to fire a bunch of teachers. So the teachers have all screamed bloody murder. > [@](#): > > And I guarantee you that moving more kids into private education will dramatically lower both the cost of education and the number of administrators and support staff you need. Check out the size of the administration of the Catholic school system in New York, and compare it to the size of the public school administration. It’s shocking. Why not just get someone in there to fire their lazy butts? DC is doing it, why can’t New York, don’t tell me NY is more lineral than DC because DC has never had a Republican mayor and only one black mayor, all our mayors have been black Democrats. We just need to stop kowtowing to teachers unions. ---
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/69 "2009-06-25T23:09:55Z")
> [@Ruminator](#): > > Dangerosa, I appreciate that you’re the most well-spoken in arguing your side. You’ve written several long posts so this is obviously a topic that matters. > > What I don’t understand is why my goals in educating my child has to also take into account the bi-polar child. Why can’t I place my “normal” child in a different class (a different school) that’s not disrupted by bi-polar children without financial penalty (voucher)? Why is that evil? > > Parents make decisions on who their kids interact with (babysitters, doctors, etc) . Why should schooling be any different? > > I guess the dirty hidden question is: Do we as society “owe” something to the welfare of those bi-polar kids? I guess one could argue that we do. But I say we don’t frame the “solution” in terms of forcing everyone into the same school whether they want to or not. The law says that every child is entitled to a free and appropriate education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment possible. To be perfectly honest that kid needs an education more than your kid. Kids with special needs are less likely to graduate high school, and even if they do they are more likely to be unemployed or under employed. Look at 70% of high school graduates with disabilities being unemployed vs. 8% of those without disabilities. In order to have an equal chance at the job market the disabled kid is going to need trade school at the very least. If the purpose of a public education is to provide workers, those kids need an education, and if you want pwincess pwecious not to ever see those nasty disabled kids you should pay out of pocket. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/70 "2009-06-25T23:14:33Z")
> [@IdahoMauleMan](#): > > Twenty words into your post, and you’ve already obsfucated the notion that the government has extracted taxes by use of force, and has separated the buying decision from the most interested party in the deal…the parents. Public education is available in this country regardless of your ability to pay or how much you pay in taxes. In fact most jurisdictions provide a free public education to children of illegal aliens without ever asking for anything but proof of innoculation. Taxes do not enter the formula. Taxes are the funding source for all government activity but there is no correlation (nor should there be) between the taxes you payand the education your children get. Students may indeed be the customer but linking the ability to choose your school with the obligation to pay taxes is stupid. > [@](#): > > I didn’t realize there was a ‘notion’ of socialized education, that somehow we had all agreed to. I thought the only ‘notion’ was that parents wanted the best education for their children, and would like to exercise as much control and choice as possible over that decision. What country have you been living in? We have a public education system and unless you want to pay for private school (if there is even a private school in your area), you have to deal with whatever education the government provides. That can be in the form of traditional public schools, or it can be a charter school but is we ever let government merely subsidize public education through vouchers, we will have lost one of the great instruments of levelling the playing field in our society. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/71 "2009-06-25T23:19:04Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > School policy should be set with a goal of giving kids the best possible education. > > Private schools give a better education that public schools. That’s what matters. Hence we should move as many children as possible into private schools. While some may disagree, there’s one group of people who are quite clear on the issue. > > [http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=120308A](http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=120308A) This may jsut be a quibble but I don’t think school policy should be giving the “best possible education” because we have limited resources and while education has a pretty good return on societal investment, there are limits. If you show me a private school that does not cherrypick and provides a better education at the same or lower cost per pupil, then I say charter them. IF you show me a private school that selects the best students and the most involved parents and produce better results than average while charging more than public school spend then all I can say is DUH. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/72 "2009-06-25T23:21:39Z")
> [@Airbeck](#): > > Private schools have better test scores because they can pick and choose what students they accept, as well as how many. Public schools must provide an education for every child that wants/needs one. In order for it to be fair, private schools must then have to accept any student that wants to go there and has a voucher. No standards, no exceptions. Then what happens to the performace of the private schools when they can’t just eliminate the problem students that get horrible test scores and ruin the environment for all of the other students? I believe that is how DC charter schools work. The problem is that there is self selection. The kids with involved parents jump through all the hoops to get their child’s name in the lottery that the schools here use to accept students. Still the overall performance of DC students has improved. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/73 "2009-06-25T23:23:15Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > The worst indictment of the public school system is the fact that there are people who, if given a choice between a 100% no extra cost to them education for their kids on one hand, choose to pay thousands out of their own pocket to send their kids elsewhere. > > What if you could shop at grocery store A and fill up your cart at no cost, but you chose grocery store B at full price? What would you conclude about store A? Do you know anyone that shops at whole foods? Do you know anyone that shops at Neiman Marcus? There are other reasons people send their kids to private school besides the crappiness of public schools. ---
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/74 "2009-06-25T23:23:19Z")
> [@furlibusea](#): > > The law says that every child is entitled to a free and appropriate education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment possible. Just an fyi… all the best debaters on this board for either side, on any topic, do not bother regurgitating what the “law” is to advance their case. > [@furlibusea](#): > > To be perfectly honest that kid needs an education more than your kid. That’s a horrible and misguided reason. > [@furlibusea](#): > > and if you want pwincess pwecious not to ever see those nasty disabled kids you should pay out of pocket. You’re twisting what I said in an amateurish way. I’m talking about letting a parent have his child educated without disruption. This has nothing to do with shielding his eyes from certain classes of society. Trying to lay a guilt-trip on people who disagree with you is wrong. It seems you think of school as “babysitting” for disadvantaged kids. Others think the primary purpose of school is to teach and educate first-rate thinkers. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/75 "2009-06-25T23:24:38Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Slightly off topic, yet not, since these viewpoints tend to go together: if socialized education hasn’t killed off private education, why is socialized medicine going to kill off private medicine? Well we certainly would have more private schools without public education. ---
**Author:** ![bobthebuilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobthebuilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobthebuilder)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/76 "2009-06-25T23:26:03Z")
[QUOTE=Damuri Ajashi;11280429 What country have you been living in? We have a public education system and unless you want to pay for private school (if there is even a private school in your area), you have to deal with whatever education the government provides. That can be in the form of traditional public schools, or it can be a charter school but is we ever let government merely subsidize public education through vouchers, we will have lost one of the great instruments of levelling the playing field in our society.[/QUOTE] Though it might be a leveling of the playing field I personally believe it is a dumbing down of the playing field in general. First of all, if a state so chose could they not cancel their public education system? Is there a law that forced publication? I really do not know the answer to this question but if the federal government has passed a law requiring public education then I would argue that it is unconstitutional. Secondly we are seeing two options, and yes I realize that this debate is over vouchers and charter schools, but is their not a third option? Get rid of public education entirely. Run private schools for profit and free schools run by donations. (The Catholic Church ran private schools for years.) Athiest charities could run their own schools as well. My reasoning for presenting this third view is that public education invariably becomes indoctrination. No matter what your view on things currently is we have philosophical indoctrination in science classes all across this nation that naturalism and empiricism is the only way (or best way) to determine knowledge. I am not making a value judgment on that statement I am only saying that it is indoctrination. The only people who have the right to indoctrinate children are there parents. So currently people who disagree with the philosophical concept mentioned above are paying for it to be taught anyway, even if they teach their own kids or send their kids to a private school where other philosophical ideas are taught. My proposition: an experiment. I suggest that one state in the union get rid of their public education system. (This will never happen…) And see what happens in that state. (Other than mass exodus people wrongfully believe that public education is necessary for civilization.) This truly goes back to a position on government that they are the solution to the problems we see, when that may not be true. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/77 "2009-06-25T23:26:15Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > I think he’s saying that some kids are a ruinous environment for other kids. Which is not a problem you can solve by evacuating kids randomly to other schools - the kids will still be a problem whereever they land. Unless you think that the trouble kids will never get moved from public schools? That is exactly what they are thinking. Have a bunch of private schools and have a few government run reform schools for kids who either have problems or parents who don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/78 "2009-06-25T23:32:17Z")
> [@Ruminator](#): > > Vouchers allow parents to redirect their tax money to choose the teachers that will fill the minds of the kids. This awesome responsibility trumps all other reasons such as attempts at equality or socialization of neighborhood kids. The biggest problem I have with voucher programs is that they rarely require schools to accept vouchers as full payment. If they did THAT then I think I would be fine with vouchers. ---
**Author:** ![furlibusea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@furlibusea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furlibusea)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/79 "2009-06-25T23:34:12Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > There are all sorts of issues with public education but none of the issues you mention seems to be something that can be handled by education reform. Ding Ding Ding Ding.. we have a winner! The problems with inner city schools can not be fixed with education reforms. > [@](#): > > Teachers unions have developed to the point where they don’t really care about students as much as they care about teacher job security. The DC school chancellor recently offered DC teachers up to $100K+/year in pay if they gave her the right to fire ineffective teachers Once again, how do you define effective teachers. In my classroom I have kids who do not get fed in the morning. Kids who’s parents believe it is the teacher’s job to buy school supplies. Only about four of the students have any contact at all with their biological father and two of them are in jail. I had a kid a couple years ago who saw his father shoot his mother to death. Several of my kids talk about neighbors who were killed in gang violence. Two of them are in foster care and another 4 live with relatives. The rest live in single parent households. Most mornings I need to give them something to eat so we can do much of anything. There were two kids who I saw a total of 5 times all year. About half of them don’t get to school until two hours into the day. I had three girls get pregnant, and one of those we think the uncle did it. Most of these kids have seen very few people with a stable job. Their parents don’t read, and certainly didn’t read to them when they were little. Some of these kids have been in two schools a year since they were in kindergarten. I see one parent on parent teacher conference nights. I manage to teach but it is challenging. That all said, my classroom is by no means, the worst of the worst. I had friends who taught in rooms where half the class just got out of juvie. They had some stories. I look at the classroom my daughter goes to where the kids get bought school supplies including the 150 dollar graphing calculator the teacher required. They all had breakfast and most live with both biological parents, who are mostly teachers. Kids were read to and parents show up at parent teacher conferences. If you look at my daughter’s teachers and me, who do you think are going to have kids that do better on tests? Who do you think probably has the classroom that is easier to control? Which kids need the more experienced teacher? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908/80 "2009-06-25T23:35:55Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > The REAL problem with teaching in the USA is that money SHOULD be spent on teachers salaries. In reality, less than half is. If you’d cut out the fat of admin and concentrate on paying teachers you COULD and not have to ask for bigger budgets. I full on agree with this part of your post and maybe the teacher’s unions out where you live are toothless but here they basically own the board of ed. I don’t know if they can strike because they never have to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-choice-and-vouchers/500908.md?page=5)