Here prominent education analysts Chester Finn, Bruno Manno, and Gregg Vanourek offer the richest data available on the successes and failures of this exciting but controversial approach to education reform. After studying one hundred schools, interviewing hundreds of participants, surveying thousands more, and analyzing the most current data, they have compiled today's most authoritative, comprehensive explanation and appraisal of the charter phenomenon. These are some of the questions that this book answers. It addresses pupil performance, enrollment patterns, school start-up problems, charges of inequity, and smoldering political battles. After outlining a new model of education accountability and describing how charter schools often lead to community renewal, the authors take the reader on an imaginary tour of a charter-based school system.
Charter schools are the most vibrant force in education today.
This book suggests that their legacy will consist not only of helping millions of families obtain a better education for their children but also in renewing American public education itself. Chester E. Finn, Jr. is President of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. From 1985 to 1988, he served as Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education. Jr. Bruno V. Manno is Senior Fellow in Education at the Annie E. Casey Foundation and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Policy and Planning. Gregg Vanourek , who has served as Vice President for Programs at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and Research Fellow at the Hudson Institute, is an M.B.A. candidate at the Yale School of Management.