Hey , I ' m an educator who ' s worked for both public and charter schools so I can offer some perspective . Public schools that underperform rarely never improve to the same level as successful schools . Where I live there is a large urban city surrounded by suburbs . The urban city schools have been failing for decades and the state is seconds away from taking over . Charter schools are a Godsend for places like this . The suburban schools , on the other hand are doing just fine . For education reform to take place , we need to be able to say , This school is failing and needs to improve . We also need to be able to say , This school has not improved in the last 10 evaluations over the last 10 years so an alternative is needed . I ' m not saying , Shut down the school immediately . It means considering new approaches . It means bussing the kids to a better district or opening up a charter school . The point is we need alternatives . This whole idea that schools will improve on their own given enough time is simply false . We need to look at alternatives . Finally , the idea that , Charter schools are taking money from schools is complete bunk . Schools do not have a $ 2 mill budget that is set in stone . They get money from the number of kids they have . So when you have 300 kids at $ 10 , 000 each , that ' s a budget of $ 3 million . It will indeed change if you have fewer kids but that of course makes sense . If you have more kids you need more money . Charter schools do indeed get funding through the same principal . If a charter school gets 100 of those kids at $ 10 , 000 each , they will get $ 1 million . The same goes if you open another public school . If you open a public school and put the 100 kids there instead , the school would get the same $ 10 , 000 per kid . At the end of the day you have to decide Should we look for new ideas or should we keep trying to push these kids through these failing schools ? The answer to me is obvious . Give people more choice .