If I had to choose one post each day that was a must-read, this would be it.
Bruce Baker of Rutgers has followed the evolution of the charter movement.
He initially thought they might be a source of innovation, as their advocates promised.
But over time, he has observed a systematic pattern of cream skimming, where charters pick the best students and leave the toughest cases for public schools.
Although he recognizes that some charters have resisted the temptation to win at all costs, he now concludes that the sector has become parasitic, harming public schools by skimming the students that make the charters look good.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And anyone is surprised here!!!! What did anyone think would happen when private firms get their sticky fingers in it. Look at the cost of healthcare now. The bottom line is profit first not care on learning of students.
Easily provable and I wonder why we even wonder any more. In general charters and mayoral control have been failures where they have been implemented in spite of all their advantages over regular public schools. When you cannot compete on an uneven playing field you have lost all credability in reality. Unfortunately we do not live in reality here anymore in general. Thank Bill Clinton for the 1996 Telecommunication Act which ended a free press. There used to be exposures on these issues. I have had too many reporters tell me in private that they cannot run those stories of fraud and corruption if they want to continue working. One of these reporters who told us that recently lost his job over a story of this type at a major network. He told us what would happen and it did to him just as he described. This is the problem.
So Bill Clinton “ended a free press,” according to Mr. Buzzetti? This list serve does a pretty good job of weekly publishing criticisms of charters that appear in a variety of publications.
As to the the assertions of Professor Baker…it’s not clear which advocates (other than the Ball State study) he is referring to. But the Education Commission of the States recently gave its top national award to Ted Kolderie for his promotion of the the charter idea. Kolderie has written extensively on this issue. Both of us have written columns on this for Education Week and other national publications
He (and I) had constantly questioned the idea of comparing district and charter test scores. We regard it as about as valid as comparing gas mileage of rented and leased cars. We also have never argued charters should receive less than district public schools. Both of us (and many others) have supported multiple measurements.
Beyond the realm of academic debates, one way to assess whether the charter movement is moving ahead is to determine whether families are interested. No one is assigned to attend a charter (unlike millions who are assigned to attend various district public schools. The number of students attending charters continues to grow.
The charter idea also has given many educators the chance to create the kinds of schools that they think make sense.
None of this is to deny that there are great district public schools. There are.
The 1996 Telecommunications Act allowed consolidation of the media. When Clinton signed the bill there were about 80 owners of media today there are maybe 5-6. Tell me who did what?