Tony Wagner writes that if leaders are serious about change, they must give charter schools the resources they need to reinvent American schools. Two hostile camps dominate debate about the future of American public education. One camp seeks to reform and revitalize public schools, while the other seeks to dismantle them through tuition vouchers and privatization. Curiously, both sides agree that charter schools are a terrific idea. It's easy to see why public education supporters, including public school employee unions, are intrigued by charters.
Charter laws give educators and parents the opportunity to create the schools of their dreams.
Indeed, dozens of authentically public charter schools already are proving themselves as laboratories of innovation and change. They are helping to strengthen public education. But charter schools are also attractive to groups that seek to replace public schools with private alternatives. In states from California to Massachusetts, when these groups have failed to pass tuition-voucher bills, they have shifted their energies to passing charter school laws. The answer lies in their peculiarly permissive notion of what a charter school is.