"When her twin daughters, Megan and Mackenzie, were in third grade, Janice Anderson noticed a shift in their school habits. They weren't motivated.
She determined it was because few of their peers were inclined to take school seriously, and their teacher seemed unable to keep everyone on task."
Many more Stanislaus County families are choosing charter schools — enough to create demand for eight new charter campuses in just the past five years.
Those decisions are changing the way education is delivered, challenging public schools to be more flexible and giving parents more choices than they've ever had.
Yet some fear that charter schools are "skimming" the most involved parents — ones such as Anderson — out of the traditional public school system, putting those schools at a long-term disadvantage against their newer rivals.
"Another educator once told me that it's like traditionals and charters are all in a race, but the state allows charters to build their race cars faster," said Bill Redford, director of Riverbank Language Academy and a former employee of the California Charter Schools Association.
In many ways, charter schools are better positioned for success. They tend to be smaller schools that give students more individual attention.
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