"Take a little bit of what each political philosophy espouses and you'll have something worthwhile." (me, just now)

Competition is probably good, but then you need standards. And the best of the standards are, yes, Common Core, no matter how much President Trump wants to eliminate the non-federal program. In fact, it should be adopted in all schools and with a standard measurement in the classroom. For example, when I was teaching, I had no idea what proficient really was for a given skill, so I estimated that 9-10/10 was advanced proficient and 7-8/10 was proficient. But a lot of teachers wanted 4/5 quiz scores to be proficient and 5/5 AP. And that was in my own school district. Another district or another state could be much different, unless we all adopt the same standards and the same measurements, competing in the same way. 

Basically, take the best of what the liberals have pushed (Common Core Standards) and combine with the best of what the conservatives have pushed(competition). But it has to be fair and balanced, with private schools getting public money and testing kids with the same assessments. Real competition with a real way of measuring the results. A federally-accepted set of standards we all agree to and that show where our schools are at.

Most schools will, as expected, score within the anticipated range for the students at the school. When a school or teacher has students who consistently over-perform, those teachers or schools can be rewarded with more vouchers being cashed in for a worthwhile education. However, if a school or teacher consistently under-performs compared to the competition, then they should probably lose funding or students.

The problem is that most schools today do not over or under-perform. Most schools are right where they are predicted to be, which means a lot of movement to other schools is just a waste of resources, as is paying top dollar to a public school teaching force that gets no better results than their underpaid private school counterparts.

If we judge schools simply on graduation rates, it's often a race to the bottom, as schools work hard to allow students to pass. If we tell schools there is no competition, it's a race to nowhere, as it's anyone's guess what material is necessary to meet any requirements. However, a broad, skills-based, national curriculum combined with legitimate competition will result in at least a group of stakeholders who care and can understand the necessity of the assessments used.