Two things happened this past week that make the most powerful case ever for school vouchers.

Over the last several years, the efforts of most education reformers have been largely focused on opposition to Common Core standards. This is indeed a worthy goal, but sometimes it pays to take a step back to avoid missing the forest for the trees. Common Core is a symptom of a larger disease, a disease that affects the way we think about education as a whole. Let us not delude ourselves by thinking that ending Common Core alone will suddenly solve all the problems with American schooling.

Who should be responsible for your child’s education: you, or the government? It’s a debate that has been raging for centuries, but it is only recently that government control of education has become so intrusive as to inspire real backlash. The alternative education movement in America has been around for decades, but these days it seems to really be picking up steam, and it is not a stretch to attribute at least some of its rise in popularity to the ever-lengthening arm of the government education bureaucracy.

A decision by the Washington State Supreme Court ruling charter schools unconstitutional has sparked a national conversation on the accountability of charter schools as opposed to traditional public schools, and the virtues of school choice in general. The chief issue in the case was the fact that charter school boards are not elected, and thus not eligible for public funding under the Washington Constitution. Unelected boards are regarded as unaccountable to taxpayers, and therefore undesirable.

In early June, the U.S. Census Bureau issued a report on the state of public education finances in the United States. Among the reports many interesting charts and graphs is the tracking of per-student spending in elementary and secondary schools from 1992 to present. In all but one year, spending has increased, topping out at $10,705 per student. With a trend like that, most reasonable people would expect to see dramatic results reflected in student performance. Otherwise, what are we paying for?