Inevitably, they identify more with their social class than with their neighbourhood community, or even, with democratic egalitarian ideals. Education researcher Murray Dobbin has just completed a study of charter schools In New Zealand, the US, UK and Alberta. Parents are often frustrated as popular charter schools chose students, not the other way around. Alberta's charters are mainly conservative, elitist. Britain's are status quo, traditional.
Public schools offer more subject choice.
Public board alternative schools in Ontario, in particular, meet a variety of student needs in imaginative ways. Charters have spread in the U.S. as alternatives to impoverished inner-city ghetto schools. Ontario does not have this problem. Unique in North America, Metro area schools have outperformed their suburban neighbours. Middle class parents pull their students out of some neighbourhood schools, leaving behind a larger number of high needs students and fewer positive role models.