If you think about it, we would never entertain the idea of electing five people who would then have the sole franchise over grocery stores in the area. When money goes into that central system rather than directly to the schools and the children who are to be educated by those schools, that is a monopoly, a centrally run system that probably will not work very well. Instead what we ought to allow is that the money to go to the child. In Arizona we have set up this system that will be online by 2000, by which we literally track money on children. This is across the board, not just charter schools.
Children have a unique identifier, a number.
Virtually the only thing that will get money to move in Arizona will be a parent signature on an enrollment card at a school. Money shows up at that school. That is a very powerful policy. The money ought to move with the children. In the case of the charter schools, Arizona went a step further.