Reality check: Do you have a free public school system? Are there private schools as well, or do the public school system have a monopoly on running schools? If there is demand for better or different services than the public provides, there is a market.
Indeed we do. And the case that I explained for private doctors is precisely the situation which exists for private schools. They are quite expensive, and of course sending your kid to one does not get you a tax break.
Fascinating. In my country private schools will get almost the same amount from the government per pupil as public schools, provided they keep their fees at a reasonable level and comply with certain quality standards. Same with private hospitals, btw. They will get the same amount per patient as it would cost to heal them in a public hospital. There is real competition between the private and public sectors in areas where the population is dense enough, for specialized services like heart surgery, and for boarding schools. If the private sector can provide a better service at a lower cost, the private sector will win. For some reason the private alternatives almost always cost more. I.e. the sum of user payment and public refund is higher than the cost of the same in the public sector.
And I did not even touch upon the quality of the service provided: Public schooling is widely acknowledged as being sub-par, but while everyone knows that private schooling is much better, only the wealthy can afford it.
Show me one country which is satisfied with their public school system. This is a matter of basic psychology as well. When you spend resources on something, you expect a reward. People who pay for something are therefore more likely to feel rewarded afterwards than someone who get it for free. If you got a tax break for sending your kids to a private school, it is in fact less likely you will think it is good, because you already got the reward. It is also less likely that you will make the most of it, because your net investment is lower.
Countries with a free public healthcare system spends half as much taxpayer money per capita for a much more effective system than there is in the USA. Your "nearly crushing tax burden required" is half of what you pay for the system now.
That may be true. Certainly this half-public, half-private monstrosity needs to die. But of course, those other countries are
not the US, and therefore have different demographics, and a smaller population, and are therefore a smaller burden on a healthcare system.
Many factors determine the cost of the health system, but public spending per capita is approximately the same all over Europe measured in % of GDP. In the USA it is almost twice as much. All are different countries with different demographics and population densities.