> No, they tend to “do better” because and to the extent they cherry-pick students, either by more restrictive admissions, by being more free to remove students

> No, they tend to “do better” because and to the extent they cherry-pick students, either by more restrictive admissions, by being more free to remove students that being their aggregate results down. This is another common misconception (thank public union messaging). AFAIK Most charters do admissions by lottery, and the applicants do not tend to differ too much demographically from the nearby public schools. Now, there is some selection bias in that only parents who are paying enough attention to know what school their kid is enrolling in would even think to enroll, but that doesn't necessarily mean that their home life is more conducive to education.