Charter schools work well for well-matched students. I think the problem is that many parents see "charter" and think "yes! I found my son/daughter's perfect school!"
I have worked in two charters over the past 12 years. One has been open for 18 years and is hugely successful. We have a 1% revocation rate (which means we kick out 1% of the students that are originally accepted). This rate is significantly lower(5-20% lower depending on which school) than the two high schools in our area- either their dropout or expulsion rate. Most people do not realize that traditional public schools CAN and DO kick out kids with continuous behavior problems.
We do service special ed students who can function with a push in model or a one to two hour a week pull-out model. We do not service students who need special day class or full-time emotional and behavioral support outside a mainstream class. This is a conscious decision on our part. It's not good education to service these students on our campus simply to have them around but not for them to have access to the programs we provide. We do have several students with full-time aides that are mainstreamed.
We also have FIVE separate programs and more than 1200 students, two of which are high schools. But each student is matched to a program that is designed to meet his/her needs. We have a high school arts academy that is all college prep, but arts classes are taught by professionals. The kids can take dance, drama, visual art or music at any level and up to 4 classes a day by end of high school.
Our other high school program is an independent study program where students meet with a teacher once a week, turn in work, collect new work and have a "check up". There is a huge variety of students in this program from pregnant teens and credit recovery students to professional actors and athletes who need time to travel without losing credit at school.
Previous posters are right- on average charter schools do no better than traditional schools. But this is really regionally dependent. It's like saying that overall, all school districts are the same. We know that on a case by case basis, that's simply not true.
My school receives close to 1,000 applications for incoming spots of 180 in two different programs that start in 6th grade.
My point in a nutshell: There are many, many success stories skewed by the charter school nationwide data.
