This is just blatant disregard for those who have no other options. already displayed in this thread. A "Just suck it up buttercup" mentality of the others irrelevance to you.
As I noted before, these school choice programs haven't really give anyone any additional options that they didn't already have at their disposal before.
In the few states that have tried them, the vast majority of voucher moneys that ended up going to private/alternative schools were from people who were already sending their kids there before.
For a point of reference, I'll cite Arizona again to show how it worked out.
Each parent received a voucher that was worth around $7000 per pupil.
The average private school tuition in Arizona is $10,244. The private elementary school average tuition cost is $9,960 per year and the private high school average is $13,753 per year.
For a parent (or parent(s)) on a very fixed income (who happen to be the ones who live in districts that are struggling the most), a $7000 school voucher isn't opening any new doors.
A) It doesn't even cover the full cost of the private tuition
B) There's no guarantee that there's even a private school in the area that has openings
C) Many private schools are religious school, which creates a conflict because it equates to the state government giving moneys to a religious institution using parents as a proxy.
D) Even if they wanted to put it towards a different public school district in the region, that doesn't solve the issue of how to get them there, the other public district can't be expected to provide bussing to everyone in a 30 mile radius, and they may not have openings for additional students either.
Even if you look at states that have implemented school choice systems, but tried to address the problems that were present with the Arizona implementation...for example, Maryland. (under their Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today program; or
BOOST)
It still wasn't "opening a lot of doors" for most people, by their own numbers, only 0.3% of public school students were able to successfully put that toward a private school, and only 2.1% were able to put it toward one of the states 50 public charter schools, the rest all had to stick with the traditional public school district they were in.
Financially and logistically speaking, if you see a school system 3 towns over that's performing better, it makes more sense to try to emulate them rather than concoct a plan to create a system in which all of the parents in your own town get to draw straws and see which 3% of your town's kids will get to take up the few additional openings at neighboring school districts. (leaving the other 97% kids to have to ride it out at the current district which now has even less funding)
There's a reason why school board membership is an elected position...if you feel they're not up to snuff and the majority of residents concur, vote them out and get some people in there that are likeminded with the better district that's 3 towns over.