Roland Martin nails it on the issue of vouchers...

It's simple, and as Roland Martin points out in his commentary on CNN, McCain right, Obama wrong on school vouchers there's one reason why many Democratic candidates do not support vouchers, it's because of the teachers unions:

Obama's opposition is right along the lines of the National Education Association, and the teachers union is a reliable and powerful Democratic ally. But this is one time where he should have opposed them and made it clear that vouchers can force school districts, administrators and teachers to shape up or see their students ship out.

It is unconscionable to ask a parent to watch as his child is stuck in a failing school or district, and ask him to bank on a politician coming up with more funds to improve the situation. Fine, call vouchers a short-term solution to a long-term problem, but I'd rather have a child getting the best education -- now -- rather than having to hope and pray down the line.

What's sad is in the past 20 years we have been arguing about this situation, there have been few solutions and we continue to argue about it. Martin nails it that vouchers should be a part of the educational process, that parents should have a choice and an option.

On the flip side to be fair, better regulation of charter schools needs to be part of the solution and there needs to be a better way of funding rather than having the child enroll in a charter school, have that charter school receive funding then if the charter school does not live up to the promise and the child is enrolled back into the public school system, those dollars should follow the child. It's not feasible to do this on a monthly basis, I understand that, but there has to be a way to create a better system that what we have here in Ohio and elsewhere.