Charter School Authorizers Seek Tougher Regulation

An opportunity to strangle the increasingly popular education option

In what may be a wake-up call to many of the USA's 6,000 charter schools, an influential group called Wednesday for tougher standards for these independently run public schools, saying lawmakers should have more power to close down underperforming schools.

Since the first charter school opened in 1992, their rise has been meteoric – about 2 million students attend charter schools, and many top schools have helped to reinvigorate urban education. Others haven't always outperformed traditional neighborhood schools.