John Hood’s blog regarding the optimal size of the voucher that enables a parent to withdraw his son or daughter from the terrible morass of public education reminds us that in politics, the focus is rarely on the key issue, which in this case is freedom.

It seems to me that the only principled approach is to credit back to the parent whatever amount of taxes he paid to support the public education system. Yes, that means that poor people don’t get much back from the government if they take advantage of non-governmental education. The proper way to go about assisting them is through private scholarship programs.

Besides, credit back for unused and unwanted government services would set a lovely precedent.