I definitely do not see the best teachers flocking to charters as a whole , as charters typically have lower pay and less benefits . They rarely provide insurance that isn ' t astronomically expensive thankfully , my school is an exception to this , as we cover all employees 100 %, there is no pension as they have in public schools , and perhaps most importantly , there is no stepped salary requirement where teachers receive raises based on years of tenure . As someone who once taught in a charter school , thank you for your honesty here . When I read the comment about charters getting the best teachers it rankled me because I knew it was leaving out that charter schools often have a revolving door when it comes to staff . The truth is most urban charter school teachers would ideally like to work in a suburban , middle class , public school . The overall goal is to work in a district that respects teachers . When charter schools first started , that ' s what it seemed like they were about . The first charters were begun by either parentteacher partnerships , or by universities as a laboratory school of sorts . But as with all things , once business got involved it became more about money . There are too many charters that exist now that are about figuring out how to educate kids for less rather than educating them well . Ask any teacher who has worked for a corporate charter and you will hear the same lament . They don ' t understand that a school is not a traditional business . If it were then students would be both client and employee , and that just doesn ' t make sense ! Now either these companies are incredibly thick , or they just don ' t care because it was never about providing an education . Not all charters are bad , in fact some are quite good and doing creative things that they would not be able to do in a district . But some definitely are bad and exist for the wrong reasons .