April 4, 2000. The Connection with Christopher Lydon. April 4, 2000. They're private schools with public funding. Parents choose for their kids to attend, teachers choose to teach there and the government foots the bill.
Charter schools are free from regulation.
They can teach the kids the way they want to, but, in the end, the kids have to pass the same standardized tests that all the other public schools kids do. Chester Finn , education guru and charter school expert, has just written their report card and the grades are all over the place. Boston's City on a Hill School is thriving, but the Renaissance School in Douglas County, Colorado shut down after three years because of lackluster test scores. While Chester Finn analyzes the data, Michael Goldstein is getting his hands dirty. He's started his own Charter school set to open this September.