| Public-school defenders often argue that school | | | | fight school choice to protect the public |
| choice would destroy the public schools. Almost 90 | | | | schools.School authorities use the same argument |
| percent of children in this country attend public | | | | against charter schools. Charter schools are public |
| schools. If we had vouchers, no compulsory | | | | schools controlled by parent-teacher boards, not |
| attendance laws, and an unregulated education free | | | | central school authorities. School authorities claim that |
| market, millions of parents might transfer their | | | | charter schools, like vouchers, divert millions of |
| children to private schools. This would drain hundreds | | | | taxpayer dollars from regular public schools, and can |
| of millions of tax dollars from public schools. Those | | | | therefore undermine these schools. Public schools |
| children left behind in the shriveled public schools | | | | may have serious problems, school authorities say, |
| would then get an even worse education than they | | | | but almost forty-five million American children attend |
| do now. Therefore, the argument goes, we have to | | | | these schools. |