All this has happened in about five years. Charter schools may be the most vibrant movement in American education today. Chester Finn and Bruno Manno of the Hudson Institute recently completed a national study of charter schools. They found all the characteristics of successful schools, like innovation and high standards. They also found that the schools are serving a disproportionally high number of at-risk children.
Parents have simple aims.
They want safe schools. They want to choose the school that their child attends. They want schools with high standards where children can learn what they need to know to succeed in the modern world. Educators need to remember the three principles that will bring these schools about. One is autonomy.