I don't think I agree with very much in this piece. Schools have an objective that is very aligned with the decision maker's objective -- both parents and society want their child to excel in their career. Prisons have an objective where the decision maker inmate does not share objectives with society.

This makes all the difference: magnet schools in the US compete on OUTCOMES, chief among these is admissions into leading colleges, and standardized tests.

I trust parents to police schools FAR more than I trust gov bureaucracies to do it. it is too easy to just say "oh that is as good as we can do with these kids"

Competition proves this wrong, and the loosing schools loose children.

Indeed I would go in the other direction: I would standardize percentile rank measures at various grades, and measure schools on their "lift" per student over time. Schools could even specialize in lifting low performers.

In the US schools are locally funded, thus rich districts have much greater cash, we should nationalized this funding to equalize it... this would go along way towards fixing inequality in our system. The poorest and richest kids should both get the same voucher.

And schools should be very free to kick students out for disruptive behavior... I imagine certain schools specializing is 'problem' kids. Indeed the vouchers associated with those kids (and special needs kids) should both be increased in order to cover the extra costs.

Poorer schools in the US have many discipline problems which dramatically degrade instructional quality. Over night those would be GONE. Either students would improve (if they could and wanted to), or they would be sent to a school that really would be run more like a prison (as it would need to be run).

What I like about my system over yours is that a parent who wants a better life for their kid could get it. They would have the same voucher that better off kid has, and their school of choice would get 'credit' for improving their percentile rank over time.

In my system poor performing schools would simply close down, they would have too few vouchers to pay their bills. The teachers and administrators would loose their job, and a successful school would simply expand into the old building that was left behind.

Public schools in America today, can be just as shitty as they were last year, and nothing changes.