They're increasingly popular with parents looking for an alternative to the public-education status quo. According to the Washington-based Center for Education Reform , a record 519,000 children will be attending more than 2,000 charter schools this fall . That's still only about 1 percent of all American schoolchildren, but it's up 20 percent since last year and represents huge growth for a movement that began just nine years ago in Minnesota . It's no wonder that charters have attracted far wider and more bipartisan political support than vouchers, says Bruce Fuller, a professor of public policy and education at the University of California-Berkeley and editor of a forthcoming book on charter schools. Charter schools now enroll 43 times more students than the number participating in the nation's three publicly financed voucher experiments.
Critics worry about charter-school accountability.
Could Doom Vouchers in Two States .