"There's been a concerted effort by the pro-charter crowd to 'educate' the public about the so-called publicness of charter schools. You'll regularly see 'charters' referred to as 'public charter schools' these days, and don't think this slight change in label was accidental. The variety, quality, and types of charter schools - from your blatantly for-profit EMOs like the Edison Schools, the assortment of no excuses charter chaingangs like KIPP, rather progressive versions like the Big Picture schools, 'mom and pop' charters started and run by legitimate teachers, and a number of other different types - makes this field more complicated than it first appears."