Even among private schools, pricing differentiation happens. My local catholic parish has many schools: Some are very affordable, but those are not the good one

Even among private schools, pricing differentiation happens. My local catholic parish has many schools: Some are very affordable, but those are not the good ones. The ones that are competitive with the secular private schools charge just as much, and it's not due to facilities suddenly costing five times as much: It's that, for the most part, only the kids with rich parents will afford them, plus a few rare scholarship targets that happen to make the school look a little diverse. The high price is a feature. So Vouchers do not have all choices available: Having a voucher doesn't guarantee acceptance to a school. And depending on your voucher legislation preference, you aren't going both force all schools to accept vouchers and make sure they don't raise prices. Ultimately, being selective is a feature, and therefore prices will go up, not unlike how easy student loans for colleges help raise prices. The top schools will eat the entire value of the voucher in cost increases, or just refuse the value of the voucher if they can't. You are right in the fact that really, most people in America have to pay for the good school district, either straight up in cash, or in significant increases in home costs. I've seen 30% drops in home values as, within the same district, the line of who got to go into the 'good' public school changed. Vouchers probably make the school choices far more explicit, and might lead to less housing segregation. But they sure aren't going to make all choices available to everyone, any more than I can choose to marry a supermodel, or own a private island.