Couldn't they just drink Coke?

Ever since school choice became an issue, the teachers' unions have piously proclaimed they oppose voucher programs but have no quarrel with parents who can afford to send their children to private schools. But in Jersey City, New Jersey, the local union has intimidated Pepsi-Cola into dropping financial support for a scholarship program to enable low-income students to attend private schools.

Pepsi agreed to fund a scholarship program for primary and secondary students as well as one for college-bound graduates...Pepsi vending machines in Jersey City were jammed and festooned with signs calling for a boycott of Pepsi products. The president of Jersey City's teachers' union made it clear Pepsi's program wasn't welcome.... (The Wall Street Journal, 12/5/95)

Makes you wonder what private schools would cost if they didn't have to compete with the government

With tuition at the nation's leading private schools double what it was a decade ago, an increasing number of families are turning to student loans and payment plans to foot the bill, financing options once reserved for college students.

"Whether or not a family takes out loans, families make sacrifices to send their kids to private schools," Mr. Combe [president of Knight College Resource Group, the largest provider of high school loans], said. "People are making a consumer decision for private over public choices and are wiling to be creative to pay for it." (The New York Times, 10/15/96)

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