“if competition were allowed, and parents could use the tax money assigned to their student to send their school wherever they want, then bad schools would be shut down, bad teachers would be fired, and real learning could take place”
That is the theory. But it hasn’t worked out that way in practice. Many charter schools turned out to be worse than the public schools. Even Diane Ravitch no longer thinks competition is the answer.
Not that I’m against school choice — far from it. In parts of CT, ME, and VT there has been school choice for over a century; the programs are well liked and successful. But it is not a panacea.