In fact, a very high percentage of charter schools nationwide are run by public school staff. Twenty other districts now bus their students to this St. Paul public school charter and pay St. Paul tuition. Four experienced high school teachers in Henderson, MN, run a 125-student high school supported by a large rural district. The high school provides a project-based learning curriculum for students, many of whom were not successful at the district high school. Their state test scores are very high.
Charters can function as a small research and development arm for the public school system.
They are public schools and answer to whatever standards and requirements the school board sets, the same as the public schools that the board operates directly. Charter schools can be a small environment for trying out good school ideas more easily and with less trauma for the whole system. Accepting charters says that we know APS runs good schools, but we recognize that there might be other very good schools that could serve our students well, and from which we might all learn. For the record, Alexandria, Falls Church and Loudoun County are local districts that have decided they would accept charter applications. The Virginia charter law requires that admission to a charter school be district-wide.