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Like stones cast into the public education waters, charter schools create ripples that can affect conventional public schools nearby.  In large part driven by an aggressive, customer-service approach to education, charter schools engage parents, teachers and students in a partnership focused on improving achievement.  Enlightened school districts have taken notice.

For example, Thomas County, Georgia, school district opened its own charter school, the Bishop Hall Charter Schools, with small group instruction and individualized attention, and saw graduation rates increase by more the 20 percentage points within two years.  Or note how Indianapolis Superintendent Eugene White describes the external motivation from charters to improve: “We will now find new ways to create better educational options and opportunities.”

School districts without public school choice are de facto education monopolies – parents and children of limited means are forced to take what’s available without recourse.  Challenged by competition, however, schools push to help students flourish.  Examples of such stories provide the inspiration and hope parents desperately want for their children’s education experience.  They’re tired of the obstacles and opposition to charter schools, often at the hands of local school boards, district offices, bureaucracies, and teachers unions that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo – an education system more focused on protecting jobs than student achievement.

For example, Kansas City charter schools were prevented from receiving $6 million to which they were entitled under state law because the Kansas City Board of Education sued the state rather than pay the money.  Or, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, instituted a new requirement that schools be located on a minimum of three acres of land, but exempted conventional public schools from the ordinance.

The solution lies in committing to the same notion of competitiveness in schooling as we have for the economy as a whole.  When schools have incentives to do well, they offer programs to fill a niche to attract their prime customers, parents and teachers.  Charter schools are open by choice, are closed if they fail to perform, and meet the same general standards of accountability that all public schools must meet.  But without the burden of undue bureaucratic regulation and assembly-line mindset, they become an oasis for math, science and technology innovations in education at a time when such a focus has gone missing in conventional public education.

Despite facing numerous obstacles, charter schools find the recipe for success.  The stories of determined educators, often working with children the conventional schools seemingly can’t help, provide the inspiration that can transform school districts and provide hope for all students to achieve academic success some never knew was possible.

For example, Paradox Valley Charter School in Colorado enrolls a student population where 90 percent qualify for free and reduced-price lunch (a barometer for poverty used by the federal government) and 25 percent receive special education services.  The school was rated “excellent” on the state’s school report card, which school leaders credited to the quality of their staff and innovative curriculum.  Or, Bonita Springs Charter School in Florida rose from a C to an A rating in its state assessment test, most improved in the district.  Students credited the hard-working teachers who helped them feel prepared, relaxed and confident about their performance in the test.

These schools address core deficiencies, but only came about because competitiveness was introduced into states’ public school systems through charter laws. These and other school choice measures which permit students to attend other public or even private schools where math and science standards are more rigorous and more focused can help produce widespread qualitative change in America education.

Charters should be viewed as a natural evolution and welcome addition to the nation’s educational landscape.  With about 4,000 charter schools serving over one million children, they are here to stay and will continue to grow. Isn’t it better that we work to help the children who attend them benefit fully, rather than wage a campaign of obstruction?

Award-winning journalist Joe Williams recently wrote Charter Schools Today: Stories of Inspiration, Struggle & Success, published by The Center for Education Reform.