I didn't say that tax funded education _must_ be bad ROI. I gave an example of several nations that have significantly better ROI such as Germany and Finland. I did say I think we need to get our fiscal responsibility in education figured out before we move on past K-12.

I think this desire to reign in spending to make sure we find a way to do it effectively holds regardless of one's belief in which particular education we are thinking about funding. You wouldn't start throwing more money at a problem until you understand what is going wrong and have a suitable plan to fix and and witness the managers of the money are acting accordingly.

The main reason education is so expensive for a toddler is because of government intervention, such as childcare ratios and regulations regarding the facilities and licensing. If I lived in Idaho (the only state in the nation which has no such government regulation) it would be significantly cheaper.