I don't have kids, but I think I still have a dog in this hunt, so to speak, since I prefer an educated citizenry to an uneducated one.
I don't have any statistics or links to back anything I'm about to say. I'm just going on observations, having lived in several different places and having several family members who are teachers.
Regardless of how much money is spent per student, if there is no support at home from parents and family members who care whether or not the child learns, the teacher will spend his or her time baby sitting. The parents who take advantage of vouchers and charter schools are typically the ones who read to their kids when they were little, made sure they learned their colors, their abc's and how to tie their shoes before entering first grade. The presence of these kids in public schools is supposed to help some of that "caring about learning" rub off on the other kids, although I'm not sure it does.
In any case, I'd prefer that my tax dollars go to support a public school system rather than to a for-profit or religious school. I don't think most for-profit private schools have the best interest of the students at heart. They're too concerned about the bottom line, like a business should be. And, although most religious private schools provide a good education, I don't think public money should be going to fund the schools. They usually offer scholarships to less fortunate, deserving kids anyway.
Just my two cents.
