Charter schools: The good ones aren’t flukes

In this year’s Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup education poll, 68 percent of respondents said they support charter schools, up from 42 percent in 2000—but few people know what charters are. When the education journal Education Next asked Americans some basic questions this summer about charter schools, such as whether they can charge tuition or hold religious services, fewer than 1 in 5 respondents knew the correct answer (which was no in both cases). The confusion is so pervasive that more than half of the teachers surveyed couldn’t answer the questions correctly either. Time Magazine looks closer at America’s charter schools.