But, over the past year, several empirical studies have demonstrated that, indeed, competition works just as the reformers predicted. Charter schools can be created by parents, teachers, nonprofits, or, occasionally, for-profit companies. They are schools of choice, and their public funding normally comes with the students who choose them, from the district the students leave. Although Albert Shanker, the legendary former American Federation of Teachers president, played a pivotal role in putting charter schools on the political agenda, most teachers' unions and administrators' associations still resist them. In state after state, these organizations have fought to kill or weaken charter school bills.
Unions also fear losing bargaining rights and teacher tenure in charter schools.
Occasionally, they allege that charters are outright scams perpetrated by con artists who seek to profit at the expense of children. Indeed, their percentages of minority students are equal to or higher than those of other public schools in their states. Unfortunately, it's hard to prove anything related to performance, because little meaningful data exists. In the few areas where test scores are available to allow a comparison among charter schools and their surrounding districts, the data usually measures absolute test scores, not student gains from one year to the next. Hence, it doesn't tell us whether charter schools are creating more educational gains or whether they started with students who were already ahead.