ABSTRACT
In an ideal world, the founders of charter schools would have a relatively simple task. Freed from bureaucratic restraints, charter schools would be able to pursue the educational vision their founders believed to be most effective for the children they served. All of each charter school’s constituents would have actively chosen to be there. (None would have signed up simply because they disliked the other options available to them.) In an ideal world, all charter schools would have adequate startup funds; all schools would be able to find facilities well suited to their purposes; staff members would not find their energies drained by ongoing political struggles outside the school. However, as is clear in earlier chapters, none of the schools described in this book existed in an ideal world.
