Vouchers might help in a behavioral or motivational sense, but they only marginally address the real problem: the attitudes and behavior of the students.

As little as 2 or 3 troublemaker students in a class of 20-30 can destroy the learning environment. Quality of teachers is often a matter not of how effectively they can prepare and teach, but to what degree they can stem the tide of poor classroom discipline. And very few have much success in this area. There simply are no magic bullets, and most teachers, principals, and school districts are hamstrung from getting rid of the troublemakers.

Vouchers and charter schools--which are one of the chief beneficiaries of vouchers--help this primary problem in the sense that they allow parents to get their kids out of the adverse learning environment--away from the troublemakers. Of course, some, mainly on the liberal side of the spectrum, oppose this because it smacks of a limited return to segregation.