If politicians are concerned with raising achievement among children enrolled in government schools, one important thing they could do is to give parents the option to enroll their children in a private school.

This could be done, for example, by giving parents tax credits to be spent on their children's education. The tax credits could be equivalent to what the government spends per student in its schools.

With tax credits in hand, parents would be able to shop around for the best private schools. They would be able to get their kids out of failing government schools and transfer them to schools they believe would give their children a much better education.