ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines both charter schools and this struggle, because we believe that to understand the rise and possible decline of the charter school movement it is essential to see charter schools in their social, educational, and political contexts. It illustrates the charter school movement in its variety and fullness—its leaders, its schools, its politics, and its business—and characterize its themes, ideas, and philosophies. The book discusses charter schools—and the movement's politics of hope and despair. It compares promises made to the realities of today's charter school movement. The book also examines charter schools against these criteria, but we also recognize that no individual or groups of individuals can be accountable for all the problems of public education.
