My twin children spent seven years in Minnesota charter schools - one at one school, six at another, ultimately graduating high school. Overall, the experience

My twin children spent seven years in Minnesota charter schools - one at one school, six at another, ultimately graduating high school. Overall, the experience was extremely positive. The reason is obvious to me... there is no single "right" way to educate a child. Every child is different, and has different needs. Techniques that work well for one student can work poorly for another, or even be counterproductive. Charters allow more technique flexibility and focus than mainstream schools. The first charter my kids attended, in sixth grade, was awful for them. They were miserable and got bad grades. Does that mean it was a bad school? No, it's a great school! But it was a bad school for my children. The rigid, Catholic-like environment of that first school is great for regular kids who could use a more disciplined environment, but for neuroatypicals, it sucked. The second school we tried was absolutely wonderful. It followed a project-based learning curriculum that gave children a lot of control over their own learning, but also demanded a lot of responsibility. My oddball children (and the herd of aspies, ADD cases, and queers that accompanied them) thrived in this environment. But frankly, I think it would be a bad school for most kids. It's too demanding. Charters are in part about experimentation. And some experiments will fail. It's not a good idea to conduct large-scale, risky educational experiments on involuntary subjects - mainstream schools. But for parents and kids who CHOOSE to try new things, the opportunities are fantastic. Sadly, most people's opinions of charters are knee-jerk political reflex, rationalized with "results" that have nothing to do with how parents or kids feel about their education.