Vouchers have turned into a blatant corporate cash grab.
Would you say that the supermarket or the gas station or any other businesses that provide goods and services to millions every day are a "blatant cash grab"? Of course not. The very notion is absurd. Money is simply the medium of exchange in any advanced economy, nothing more and nothing less. Are the various tutoring centers or cram schools or other businesses that supply the education market a "blatant cash grab" or could it be that the people paying for those services, frequently out of their own pockets, are satisfied with what they have received in exchange for their money?
The private school system does not have the capacity for a huge influx of students
When there is demand, you will see how fast the market responds. Unlike government, which hems and haws and drags its feet, the private sector rolls up its sleeves and gets to work earning a profit and profit can be a powerful motivator. I'll bet it got you out of bed this morning. But as any businessman will tell you, profit is never guaranteed. It must be earned by satisfying the customer and in the case of vouchers the customer is the parent.
so charter schools are setup and either run by clueless parent groups who are underfunded and end up folding unexpectedly
If you don't think that parents can be demanding or care about what their children are or aren't learning, just ask any teacher. Parents have high expectations and they're hard to satisfy. How many times have teachers heard an exasperated parent exclaim, "My taxes pay your salary!" Clearly parents want value for their education dollar, whether that dollar comes indirectly from taxes or directly out of their own pockets, and they're vocal when they feel that they aren't receiving it. However, even if we accept that not every last parent is like this, why should we prevent a solid majority of involved and interested parents from being advocates for the best interests of their children? Who cares more about it than them? The government run schools and the teachers unions they serve have set themselves up in opposition to the real customers, the parents, and instead made themselves the customers of the politicians who control the purse strings. The best way to solve that is to put the education purse back into the hands of the parents, where it belongs, and not those of the corrupt politicians and their teachers union clients.
or they are run by corporate groups whose only interest is that fat voucher cash
And how best to get that cash? By satisfying the customers of course. It's called competition. Look it up. If one corporation pleases the parents more by providing a better quality education to their children at a lower price, where do you think the parents will send their children to school? Free enterprise and competition ensure high quality at the best possible price. The competent operators are rewarded with large enrollments and lots of voucher cash while the incompetent are driven out of the business. Thus the market rewards virtue and punishes failure, unlike the teachers unions which reward failure and punish virtue.
Schools are a community resource
One that's often underutilized and producing poor returns for the owners, aka the people who live in the community and whose taxes funded the creation of the school in the first place. These people are right to demand accountability, transparency and better results when they aren't receiving them, as indeed they aren't in many places here in the United States.
The problems we need to fix are community problems.
In my opinion, the problems that exist are best solved by submitting the schools and the people who work there to the discipline of the marketplace, just like what the rest of us. We please our customers every day or we're out of business. Why should it be different with our schools?
I don't think that strong central oversite is a bad thing
How about oversight from thousands of miles away in Washington DC, over what's essentially a local matter, by people who don't know you, don't live in your community, don't see the results of their policies and frankly don't give a damn about you personally? Compare and contrast with a business that takes your money directly, asks you directly how it can help you and does its best to satisfy you the customer every time you show up? I can tell you which model I prefer, but I think you already know which one that is.
communities need to communicate with other communities or they stagnate.
And free markets facilitate that communication best, at least as far as it concerns the efficient production of goods and services, education included. The free market allows people on opposite sides of the globe, who don't know and may even hate each other, to cooperate effectively in the efficient production of goods and services that profit those involved. It ensures rapid and thorough dissemination of knowledge and techniques that work and are profitable, whether they be methods of educating students or oilfield operations or chip fabrication or just about any other useful knowledge.