Michael has a bad mother

Vodkapundit questions the argument in today's Washington Post piece against vouchers because some kids (in this case Michael) have bad parents.

That’s right – parents who care enough to want their kids to do better shouldn’t be allowed to, because other parents won’t get that involved.

Therefore, everyone should suffer through the status quo and nothing should ever change. The point that strikes me about this Washington Post column is that Michael's life is really bad with or without vouchers. The author should have at least made a stronger argument that the current public school system is helping Michael and that Michael would somehow be more at risk if vouchers took resources away from the public school. However, she can't because this child's life can't be improved using the public school system--with or without school vouchers.

And this WAPO column ignores the mounting evidence from places like Milwaukee and Edgewood, Texas that competition from vouchers have made the public schools much more competitive. Whether it's charter schools in Phoenix or public school choice in Detroit--in every case the quality of the public schools abandoned by the fleeing students is going up not down.