Conservatives beat us on Education

I have a brother and sister-in-law who focus heavily on education in their home. Their oldest daughter is barely 7 years old and has tested out of the 2nd grade already. They worked so hard to get the school to allow them to advance her to the 3rd grade (essentially skipping two grades ahead) and the school wouldn't allow it. Several of the teachers showed up to vouch for my niece, both in terms of her academic abilities and her social skills; no dice. The principal refused to allow her to move forward even one year, much less two because she didn't want to set a precedent.

The irony is that when it comes to holding a child back a year the parents have the last say, at least in New York state. However, if your child is doing well then they aren't interested in helping them move forward. After fighting for her child and losing, she pulled all of her kids (all bright) from the school and began homeschooling.

Now, I'm about to cross the line here in several ways

#1 I'm a liberal who's DISGUSTED by the ownership teachers unions have over the democratic party.
#2 I have a bias against the homeschoolers because I suspect many of them are religious fundamentalists who are trying to limit their kids opportunities, not expand them
#3 I generally support public education... or do I?

Here is the problem as I see it: Schools that stink have no incentive to move exceptional kids forward because they bring up the test scores for the kids whose parents are not involved or who seemingly lack capacity and genuinely need special attention (funding for which is limited).
Teachers unions work to protect even crappy teachers and lousy parents demand more money so they don't have to get involved.

Here is the solution as I see it: Publicly fund and regulate education but privately run it. I do support public education, but we can have public education without having the hegemonic limitations imposed on us. Give each parent a voucher for their child's education of whatever we are currently spending on education, plus what we need to do it the right way, and then give parents the ability to hold their school DIRECTLY accountable for its success or failure.

Sometimes it's not even about "success" or "failure" so much as it is that some schools may be better suited for some students than others. Under our current system, however, the students without a lot of money are stuck. Wealthy parents will privately school their kids anyway and so it is the middle-class and poor who are screwed by the current educational practices; the very people Democrats claim to help most.

Hey Democrats, if you really care about the poor and middle-class then how about fixing the schools... not too difficult to do if you care to try. On this issue I must side with conservatives. It may be the only time I do, but it is so frustrating to have a party that sells out it's constituents for the proverbial special interest groups!