Who Knows Best For Our Children's Education?

This generation is the first that is predicted to be less successful than its former. Indeed, the outlook of the global economy plays a role in this prediction. The problems in today's educational system however, are arguably just as big a factor.
Why is the educational system struggling? Economist Milton Friedman accounts that too many parents today do not have an impact on the education of their children. Too many parents cannot choose how their children are learning, what they are learning, and who is teaching them. These decisions have been left up to a centralized administration; bureaucracy. Conversely, the parents who do impact the educational system are seeing great success such as Hinsdale Central and privately funded institutions. Unfortunately not all public districts are comparable to that of Hinsdale. These lower income districts, especially in the inner cities around the country, are the ones most damaged by this effect. Parents have lost control, and are trapped by a system which intended to help them. The correlation of educational outcome between  a parent's impact and the bureaucratic impact can be found simply at the core of all economics. Incentives. A parent's incentive to foster the betterment of its child is much stronger than that of a bureaucracy. Bureaucracy's must meet their own needs first, and others after.
This is a problem that can be fixed. Power needs to be transferred back into the hands of parents. One simple way of doing this - without disrupting too much balance with the bureaucrats - would be to instate a voucher system. Parents would be able to choose what school they saw fit for their children. This could be especially beneficial for the parents of low income districts and inner cities. Parents know their children better than anyone else, and ultimately know what is best for them. More children would be placed in positions to succeed. A marketplace would be established. Schools as the product/supplier and parents as the consumers. Competition would be sparked. Administrations and boards of education would be more inclined to meet the needs of students, as they should be.

*Of course, there are parents who are not qualified to make decisions for their kids, and this would need to be addressed as well.
What are other problems seen in education today? What other ways are there to reform education? Does anyone think a voucher system is a bad idea?

source:  Free to Choose (1990) Vol 4 - The Failure Of Socialism