Subject: Re: 16% of kids don't speak English
I'm not really assuming anything. Also, when has public education ever been left alone?

There does not always need to be a "credible" alternative. Is there one for the police? For the fire department? For the military? No. Not everything is (or can be) boiled down to the Invisible Hand of capitalism.

Fund the schools well, pay teachers well, and you will generally get good results. I would say "school board oversight", but that can go either way. You can get a good school board, or you can get Dover (among others). That can be mitigated by getting good teachers, and the courts spanking school boards like Dover. And, occasionally, parental outrage (I think that happened in TX a few years ago).