Riding the bus, worrying about gangs, shopping at an overpriced supermarket. Increasingly, schools are adding heavy doses of academic specialties. Like math so someone can teach math. In some, things are changing. But in the vast majority, particularly in graduate programs, they are training teachers of teachers and not classroom instructors.
Charter schools are public schools.
They must take all students who apply regardless of race, income, or religion. However, like private schools, they are free to hire the teachers they want, determine their own curriculum, and contract for school lunches outside the control of the central office. Unlike private schools, they are accountable to the public if they don't meet the goals of their charter, be it graduating students to college or having them learn a trade or business, or if discipline is a problem, the students flee and they can be shut down. The other difference with charter public schools is that they often get less per capita than the regular public schools do and thus must raise money from outside sources such as foundations. My daughter's new charter elementary school, for example, receives several grants, including one from the Walton Family Trust.