Any kindergartner, even if not taught it, knows that school stinks. But adults don’t realize it.

That’s because many adults keep on insisting we have this thing they call the Department of Education – wouldn’t you know it, education is too important to be left in the hands of a private market or a school voucher system. The current public education system in America is, quite literally, communist. And, like the U.S.S.R. before it, it’s basically a giant expensive disaster.

Even today’s most preeminent promoter of public schools, Barack Obama, has daughters that attend private school. They attend in D.C., actually, where it turns out the federal voucher system (oh, no! Vouchers!) has slashed costs by some 75% while improving the quality of education:

Consider the federal DC voucher program. Just a year or two after switching from public to private schools, the effect of the private schooling was not big enough to rise to the level of statistical significance. But by their third year in private schools, the evidence was clear that voucher-receiving students were reading more than two grade levels above a randomized control group that stayed in public schools. This program, as I’ve previously documented, costs 1/4 as much per pupil as DC spends on public education: about $6,600 vs. $28,000.

During the election Barack Obama said he wanted to recruit an “army of teachers.” But why? In his own city – where, again, he sends his very own kids to a private school – there is hard evidence that vouchers work.

Army of teachers? Why can’t he just print off a bunch of vouchers instead?