By Nelson Smith
Nelson Smith is president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
Charter schools have been around since 1992, but this is a breakthrough year.
They’ve attracted fans from John Legend to Newt Gingrich; they’ve
become
a cornerstone of the
Obama Administration’s Race to the Top initiative and they’ve even made it into pop culture, with charters featured on “Law and Order,” “60 Minutes,” the Showtime series “Weeds,’’ and three major documentaries, along with the novels of George Pelecanos.
Although general understanding of charters remains fuzzy – only about 40 percent of voters know that charters are actually
“public schools” – policymakers in both parties are seeing them as an agent
for broader reform of the U.S.
education system. States can gain a chunk of Race to the Top points for lifting “caps” that limit charter growth; providing facilities for them; and assuring sound oversight. Yet, with the Round Two application deadline looming, there’s pushback from school boards, unions and reporters at every stop along education historian Diane Ravitch’s book tour.
This might be a good time to confront some of the misinformation clouding the debate, and to provide some perspective on
why charters have assumed so major a role in our education reform discourse.
ARE CHARTERS TOO SMALL TO MATTER?
Charters account for less than three percent of the student population nationwide. But they’re a significant part of the public-education delivery system in a growing number of cities, educating 57 percent of students in New Orleans, 38 percent in D.C., and 32 percent in Detroit. In 14 major cities, charter school students account for more than 20 percent of public school enrollment; in 72 communities they’re more than 10 percent.
But charters are having an impact way beyond their direct customers. School chiefs like New York City Schools Chancellor
Joel Klein and Washington D.C.’s Michelle Rhee say the best charters are proof
that schools in the toughest neighborhoods can
produce high achieving students and great results.
Charters are also spinning off innovations like
Hunter College’s “Teacher U” program, a teacher-prep initiative fashioned around the demanding standards of three high-performing charter networks (Uncommon Schools, Achievement First, and KIPP). And charter entrepreneurs are mixing teaching and technology in new ways that serve student learning needs while restraining system costs.
ISN’T THE PERFORMANCE OF CHARTERS UNEVEN? 
I wish someone would write a story about teachers like my sister-in-law. Since getting her master’s about six years ago, she has had to teach a new grade level every year and switched schools nearly as often. No matter that she has ELL certification, no matter that she is great at her job—last hired, first fired, rinse and repeat, every single year. Even before budget cuts spread throughout the country, northeastern Illinois schools, whose taxpayers fought every levy, had pared back, then back some more. These days they do a
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