As of the 2010-2011 school year, our country had a total of nearly 99,000 public schools; these elementary, middle, and high schools all operate with the help of tax dollars. Most of them are traditional schools with educational standards set by each state. Best of all, the education is free. Because public schools are reliant on federal, state, and local tax dollars, funding can be cut. Also, public schools have to follow state guidelines on what they can teach and how children are evaluated. Charter Schools are like an institutional hybrid. Like traditional public schools, charter schools are free, and they can’t discriminate against students because of their race, gender, or disability. However, parents must usually submit a separate application to enroll a child in a charter school, and like private schools, spaces are often limited. Charter schools are independently run, and some are operated by for-profit private companies. However, charter schools are still funded by government coffers and accountable to the government body — be it state, county, or district — that provides the charter. (Many successful charters do substantial additional fundraising as well.) If a school is mismanaged or test scores are poor, a charter school can be shut down.
In order to start a charter school, parents, community leaders, social entrepreneurs, businesses, teachers, school districts, and municipalities can submit a charter school proposal to their state's charter authorizing entity can start a charter school. Nationwide, students in charter schools have similar demographic characteristics to students in the local public schools. In some states, charter schools serve significantly higher percentages of minority or low-income students than the traditional public schools. Charter schools accept students by random, public lottery.
Step 1: Outline your vision to the state (I chose to use Massachusetts as an example) your founding group submits an