Not necessarilly arguing that the "charter" programs are great, but have you looked at public education and the fraud within the system? We have good and bad charter schools in my area, but our city schools are closer to 90% bad, and I am not stretching the truth sadly. The testing scores are horrible in our public schools. The administration for the schools is full up with people who literally do nothing. I forget the number of sick calls they average per day from teachers, but if it were a normal business, it would have failed long ago.
To top it off the teachers have sweetheart contracts where they can retire as early as 55.5 years old and get a full pension. That is with full health benefits until they reach medicare age. They currently have 2 pension funds growing for them, and their health benefits are provided by an insurance arm of the teachers union which charges a documented arm and leg more than other available insurance. We the tax payers fund that too.
Say what you want about the charter programs, but public schools are way past broken in most major cities.
