In didn't help that the panelists agreed on virtually none of the numbers they trotted out - nor could they pass up an opportunity for rhetoric.

Voucher advocate Patrick Byrne, founder of Overstock.com, argued vouchers are critical to keeping American education - which he says "everyone agrees is a disaster" - competitive in the global market.

A voucher program would benefit everyone, said the entrepreneur who has contributed significant money to the campaign, from parents who will have the option of a private education for their children to the public schools the students desert.

The competition improves public schools, he said.

Still, the educational bureaucracy and teachers' unions fight it, he said.

"Why would anyone oppose it?" Byrne said. "One group is not better off - and that is the unionized [education] monopoly. They fear competition. They know if people are given a choice they are not going to consume the program the monopoly offers."

Marilyn Kofford, a former state PTA education commissioner, said it was a grass-roots citizens effort, not "educrats," who challenged the voucher law and forced it into a November referendum.

"It's not a small group of people trying to manipulate. We genuinely care about our right [to vote on the issue]," she said.

Kim Burningham, chairman of the state Board of Education, maintained that the public schools already offer parents choice in the form of open enrollment, magnet programs, charter schools and other options.

"This is not a question of choice, it's a question of whether public funds should be used to fund [an individual's private school] choice."

Byrne and Paul Mero of the Sutherland Institute emphasized the vouchers are aimed at low-income and minority families whose children are failing in the public schools.

"They understand their way out of poverty is to get a better education for their children," Byrne said, adding that the public education system, with its ideal of homogenizing American culture, is "absolutely founded in bigotry toward minorities."

Mero explained to the white audience of about 75, "HB148 [the voucher law] is not about you. It's about them. It's about helping these struggling kids. They are the ones who don't make it like your kids."

Byrne said the vouchers would aid poor families.

But Burningham challenged whether the program - which would offer vouchers from $500 to $3,000 - would truly help the poor.

"Why does it have no upward limit? I can be a millionaire and still get the voucher. Why is that the focus is on the low income?" Burningham said.

The small amount of money offered will not close the tuition gap for the poor, he said.