Both vouchers and charters are private schools funded with public money, but exempt from all the laws that public schools are mandated to follow.
And they will only be exempt so long as public schools are there to catch the rejects.
1. I think that the case for spending “public money” (i.e., money extracted from taxpayers) on schools is quite weak. Until I see a well-controlled experiment, I will be skeptical of the benefit of schools. And whatever the benefit turns out to be for the child and the parents, the social benefit of schools (that is, the benefit over and beyond the private benefit that parents would be willing to pay for out of their own resources) is only a fraction of that.
2. In theory, there is a case for using schools to mold citizens by imparting social norms. In practice, I don’t agree with a lot of the ideology that goes into the molding nowadays. So for me, the “molding citizens” argument is not as compelling as it could be.
3. I do not think that we need to make taxpayer-funded schooling universal. Take “universal pre-K,” for example. If we had universal pre-K, most of the money would be spent on children whose parents would already send their children to pre-K. As far as I know, the research on pre-K tends to find benefits only for children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. If we are going to spend taxpayer money on pre-K, I would say that we should spend it only on children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.
4. I would follow the same reasoning with vouchers for primary school. I would only provide money where research shows benefits.
5. It might turn out that no child really benefits from primary school. I firmly believe that human nature has evolved to make us teachers and learners. But are we sure that classrooms are the most cost-effective approach? Again, as far as I know, we don’t have evidence based on randomized, controlled trials.
6. In particular, we should ask whether “the rejects” really benefit from school. If not, then why put them through it? If so, then it should be possible to provide them with sufficient voucher money to induce an entrepreneur to provide the schooling that benefits them.