This is completely normal and is not an indication of the complete unraveling of the country
what is the right-wing motivation for getting rid of public schools? Is it to enrich private school corps? Seems like a steep price to pay in a high-tech civilization where they’d be kneecapping basically everyone else. Do they want to return to having a literate priestly class and the rest of the population is illiterate?
A very large percentage of white evangelicals either enroll their kids in private religious schools or would if they had the money. They really do believe their own bullshit about how public schools are Marxist brainwashing centers that push kids to be gay and trans. And a critical part of white evangelicalism is sheltering your kids in a bubble so they don’t get exposed to the “the world” until as late as possible. Gotta make sure they’ve had years of learning about the truth of Young Earth Creationism before their evil atheist professors in college tell them otherwise.
Of course there are plenty of libertarian types who think education isn’t the duty of government and see vouchers at least as moving in the right direction of eventually abolishing public education.
Of course the capitalists love vouchers because they further weakens the teachers unions (and all unions, by extension).
I do seem to recall that vouchers are broadly unpopular with the public outside of white evangelicals and maybe catholics.
