Traditional and ideal notions of a liberal education which includes art, drama, literature, philosophy and language are subordinated as extras. They have essentially good people running them in a generally good way with some ideals but few intentional outcomes. Religious schools know what they are doing. Hence the extraordinary and intimidating power of such groups. Some of them appall me, but I know where they are coming from.
Charters are the toughest, the frontier experiment.
I really want to see them succeed, but they will have to overcome the impersonality common in the public sector and move toward the creation of community. Some of these schools may eventually look like publicly funded versions of Country Day. Home schooling is fascinating. A friend has home schooled her son in Berkeley. He is a baseball champ, a ballet dancer and a violinist.