School systems in Alberta are given a per-student grant. So public, Catholic, Christian, French, and home schools compete to get the money. I believe that it is about $7,000 per student per year.

The public schools win at least half of these funds. Thus there is a certain economy of scale as their advantage for education delivery, which keeps attracting students to them. For example, the public high school in my town has a vibrant trades program but the Catholic high school cannot afford to run such a program.

The negatives you described in your article are probably in the non-public school in Alberta. But these schools cannot step too far out of line with Alberta curriculum lest they lose their charter to get those grants. Having said that, we do have some problems with some home-school charters who seem to find parents who don't want much of an education for their kids. But these numbers are quite low.

Having competition keeps the public school system on the sharp side. People who have choices are happier citizens.

So I believe the voucher system can work reasonably well.