Education Next – Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Bruno V. Manno
“In 2016, it will be a quarter century since Minnesota passed the nation’s first charter school law. Fifteen years ago, our book, Charter Schools in Action, foresaw this innovative governance and delivery system for education as a hopeful path to stronger student achievement and as an engine “to recreate the democratic underpinnings of public education and rejoin schools to a vigorous civil society.” Today, 43 states and the District of Columbia have some 6,700 of these schools serving nearly three million students, almost six percent of U.S. public-school enrollment. They are the fastest-growing school-choice option in the land. They are also as close to a “disruptive innovation” as American K-12 education has seen to date, creating a new market and alternative delivery system that affords long-neglected families and their children access to potentially higher quality schools than they find within the traditional district structure. It’s time to take stock of the charter movement—to review its progress and the challenges that lie ahead, what we’ve done right as well as where we’ve gone astray, and what lessons can be distilled that may be beneficial going forward.”(more)