ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between traditional public schools and public charter schools, in the view of the educator. It covers the six stages of Arizona charter schooling: traditional public schools before the new wave; the emergence of charter schools; public school reaction to charter schools; how the traditional school establishment stopped fearing charter schools and learned to work with them; benefits of charter school and public school collaboration; and future predictions. As charter schools continue to live or die based on the notion of a free-market school system, those that survive becomes stronger and catalyze change in traditional public educational systems. As educational institutions continue to develop new programs, including choice and areas of concentration, the system that some would have dismantled will make the necessary adaptations based on sound research and good practice. Traditional educational systems will continually is poked and prodded by innovations such as charter schools.
