This paper asserts that government responsibilities in education and the strong connection of Americans with their public schools are being tested, as a network of Religious Right groups, free-market economists, ultraconservative columnists, and others use vouchers as a vehicle to achieve their ultimate goal of privatizing education. Their long-term goal is to make all schooling an activity supplied by private sources. The movement believes that targeted voucher plans give them a foot in the door toward achieving this goal. The paper discusses the deeper agenda; the incremental achievement of privatization; roots of the voucher movement; other privatization strategies; spinning the voucher message; what privatization would mean; the education market; those left behind by privatization; and the unreceptive public. The paper explains that many pro-privatization groups offer two messages (one for committed followers and another for the broader public). It notes that many private schools are unlikely to accommodate significant numbers of additional students in a privatized system, cautioning that vouchers can lead to hastily created "fly-by-night" private schools unable to provide quality education. An appendix lists elective officials, right-wing leaders, and other prominent individuals who have signed the Alliance for the Separation of School and State's anti-public school proclamation or publicly offered support to the Alliance. (Contains 178 endnotes.) (SM)