There are a few interesting articles about education in America round this ol’ internet.  First, the classic response to vouchers, which I think is the best answer one can give: how can you force public schools on someone when your kids go to a private school?

Then, this article in the New York Times about segregation within education as a means of teaching English but with negative effects as a result:

Hylton High, where a reporter for The New York Times spent much of the past year, is a vivid laboratory. Like thousands of other schools across the country, it has responded to the surge of immigrants by channeling them into a school within a school. It is, in effect, a contemporary form of segregation that provides students learning English intensive support to meet rising academic standards — and it also helps keep the peace.

In a nation where most students learning English lag behind other groups by almost every measure, Hylton’s program stands out for its students’ high test scores and graduation rates. However, at this ordinary American high school, in an ordinary American suburb at a time of extraordinary upheaval, those achievements come with considerable costs.