Privately run but publicly funded, they are administered by committees of parents and teachers outside the jurisdiction of the elected school board. Ideologically motivated attacks propagating myths about the lack of performance of public schools have prepared the way for charter schools. They are supported by neo-conservative institutions like the Fraser Institute, and by business groups, including the Business Council on National Issues. They promise an increase in diversity, in direct parental involvement in the substance of their child's education, and a decrease in school board and teacher union bureaucratic barriers. However, in the cases studied, there is no saving of public money and no lessening of bureaucracy as compared to public schools.
Charter schools provide little enhanced opportunity for parents to be meaningfully involved.
Often, in fact, parents are frustrated, as the schools choose students, not the other way around. Stimulated by incentive grants, over 1100 public schools in England and Wales have become a version of charter schools called Grant Maintained schools. Many schools ear-marked for closure have applied for GM status, thus frustrating planning and innovation. Principals have accumulated more power at the expense of staff and parental involvement in planning and decision-making, but spend increasing time on budgetary and entrepreneurial activities, and dealing with the new bureaucracies that have sprung up to administer the GM schools. New Zealand has mandated charter schools to replace regular public schools.