> Brunnen-G mentioned school vouchers [...]

Similar proposals, here in Italy, caused some riots between public-school students.

Our school system is in the most part public; private schools are really a few and target only high-class students; these schools may cost five to ten times more that public school.

Also universities are almost public; private universities may cost slightly more or a lot more. For example, State University costs about 800USD/year and covers all disciplines and degrees; a computer science degree at Milan Polytechnic Univ. (private) costs 1000USD/yr.;
a Business and Finance deg. at Bocconi Univ. (private) costs 4500USD/yr. (but if you choose some Master Degrees you can spend up to 7500USD/yr.).
I supposed an exchange rate of 1USD=2500LIT (Euro conversion: 1EUR=1936,27LIT).

Here, public schools lack the necessary fundings; the problem, in the lowest grades, is that the school can't allow to hire special teachers to help students with physical/psychological problems and the 'normal' teacher often has to give out some (unpaid) extra time -or to slow down class activities- to follow every special case. In the high grades, the problem becomes the lack of laboratories, libraries, etc.

My mother teaches art history since 1970 at a Milan secondary school (*) and continues to tell me that the situation is getting worse every year.

Of course, more fundings for private schools means less fundings for public schools. In a school system that sometimes hasn't enough funds to buy desks and seats for lowest-grade kids, this could be a severe limitation to Constitutional rights, because school vouchers may be insufficient to pay the private school of your choice and public school may be unable to give you a consistent instruction on the disciplines of your choice.

AP.

(*) our school system is:
primary ("elementary") school, mandatory by law, from the age of 6, for 5 years;
secondary ("middle") school, mandatory by law, for 3 years;
high school, optional, for 5 years;
university (usually 5 years, some degrees complete in 3 or 4 years).