Make neighborhood public schools compete for students with the charter schools that are opening around the country, and they'll improve. You have to serve your client base. Thirty-four states have passed legislation allowing charters since the idea caught on six years ago, and President Clinton has called for 3,000 charter schools to be operating by 2002, up from 1,100 now.
Proponents tout charters for lots of reasons.
Faced with defections in their customer base, the schools will deliver a better product to regain their market share. She compares schools to community hospitals, another longtime public monopoly that has been forced into competition, with wider choices and cost cutting among the results. How well, though, remains to be seen. Charter enrollments are still too small, charters are still too much on the fringe and too little money is being diverted to charters from public schools to worry most school boards. Then too, charters often take pressure off crowded public schools.