Charter Schools

Charter schools have been the focus of a cover story in Time and from page stories in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. With the approval of President Clinton, a charter school grant program was first introduced by Republican Senator Dave Darenburger of Minnesota in 1991. Since then the charter school movement is one of the fastest growing education reforms in U.S. and has strong appeal at all levels of the education system, from local communities to the U.S. Congress. The charter school movement also has bipartisan support nationally and in the states that have enacted charter school laws. The federal government encourages the development and implementation of charter schools through the Public Charter Schools Program, a major grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Education.Ted Kolderie, one of the creators of the charter school concept, defines charter school as an autonomous, results-oriented, publicly funded school of choice that is designed and run by teachers or others under contract or "charter" with a public sponsor. The expectation is that these schools meet the terms of their charter or face closure by their authorizing bodies.