Many of those who argue for vouchers say that they simply want to use competition to improve public education. I don’t think it works that way, and I’ve been watching this for a longtime.

Kozol is pushing back against a common pro-voucher rationale: that market-style competition will pressure public schools to improve. Speaking from the standpoint of long observation, he argues that education does not behave like a normal consumer market—families’ choices are constrained by geography, information, transportation, and unequal resources, and the “exit” of students can drain funding and stability from already under-resourced public schools. The quote also signals a moral critique typical of Kozol’s work: reforms framed as neutral efficiency measures can intensify segregation and inequality. His emphasis on having “been watching this for a longtime” appeals to empirical, lived evidence over abstract economic theory.