fabie,
Milton Friedman did not invent the idea of voucher systems; they have been used in three New England states with great success since the 19th century. Furtmermore, in many free countries including Ireland, Spain, the UK, France, and Canada the Jewish schools get direct government support. All these schools have to follow government curriculum mandates; I don’t have a problem with that at all but some in the frum world do. And vouchers for religious schools violate the provisions of 38 state constitutions in the US, and they have been defeated in every single referendum ever held in the US, usually by landslide margins. An attempt to amend the NY State Constitution to allow direct funding of religious schools was made in 1967 and it got under 30% of the vote. Furthermore, significant support for religious schools would require significant tax increases and the frum community has in recent years been allying itself with the anti-tax folks. I would support an effort to repeal New York State’s Blaine Amendment, consolidate schools (public and private) in order to save money, and an alliance with the unions (almost all Catholic schools are unionized in NY) and poor minorities (who suffer disproportionately from inadequate public schools) in order to increase educational options via vouchers or direct governmental support. But I don’t see anyone seriously trying to build the necessary coalitions.
(I should mention that I used to be an opponent of government funding of religious schools but have turned around 180 degrees on this after visting three of the countries I mentioned.)