Well, here is some good news.
Mercedes Schneider reports that the net rate of charter school growth is declining. The number of charter school closings is rising, and the number of new schools is slowing.
“Market-driven ed reform is a story of races to close gaps. However, there is one ed-reform gap that appears to be closing, with the gap closure no doubt undesired:
“The national rate of charter school closures is notably gaining on the rate of charter school openings.
“In spring 2018, the ed-reform publication, Education Next, published an article about the decline in charter school annual net growth (number of new charter schools minus number of charter school closures per year) since the 2013-14 school year. The graph below ends with the 2016-17 school year. Note that EdNext reports that the data from this graph comes from another ed reform org, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS).
“As of this writing, NAPCS has two reports available focused on charter school enrollment, one from 2016-17 and one, from 2017-18. In 2016-17, NAPCS reported that across the nation, 329 new charter schools opened in fall 2016 as 211 had closed by spring 2016, for a net gain of 118 additional charter schools in 2016-17. The total number of charter schools open nationally in 2016-17 was 6,939, which yielded a gain of 1.7 percent (118 / 6,939), somewhat shy of the 2.3 percent EdNext listed in its spring 2018 graph, and on the lean end of the rounded “2 percent” presented in NAPCS’s 2016-17 report.
“But let us give the benefit of the still-embarrassing doubt to EdNext, who may have received more precise data from NAPCS, with both pro-charter orgs understandably motivated to present this loss in the best possible light. A dim light at a best of 2.3 percent, but worth a couple more lumens than the 1.7 percent based on the data in NAPCS’s 2016-17 report.
“Going beyond the data in the EdNext report: In 2017-18, NAPCS loses more lumens: 309 new charters opened across the nation in fall 2017 even as 238 had closed by spring of 2017, yielding a net gain nationally of 71 additional charter schools in 2017-18. Given that NAPCS reported 7,038 charter schools in operation in 2017-18, the net gain was 1 percent (71 / 7,038), which NAPCS reported spot-on as 1 percent.”
Mercedes observes that the tortoise seems to be gaining on the hare.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Any slowing of this and other efforts to allow private control of public schools is encouraging. The charter industry PR that I have seen is pressing for expansion to suburbs rural areas, and “census tracks” identified as “charter school deserts.” https://edexcellence.net/publications/charter-school-deserts-report
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That’s hopefully due to saturation or dissatisfaction in the bigger markets, the urban markets. Expansion into rural areas will be necessarily slow comparatively.
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If enough people understand that charters are separate and unequal schools, that they are unstable, operated by amateurs, and provide profit for wealthy corporations, parents may be reluctant to sign on the dotted line.
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The country may have reached the point where anyone wanting to take on running a school for other than as a criminal enterprise may have determined it isn’t worth the effort. My friend who ran one just retired. She had developed PSTD as a result of all the confrontations physical and verbal with disturbed families, a hazard in the education world.
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