How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

Open question that wasnt really discussed in the article-

Why are charter schools demonized?

My local area HATES them, and I'm not sure if its politics or worthwhile.

EDIT: Why did I get 5 downvotes?

'Public' meaning run by the local government, if that confused anyone else like me who comes from a place where it means the opposite.

I worked for 2 years as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Atlanta Public Schools. I'll preface this by saying I don't know if I believe charter schools are bad or good, but here are some arguments against them:

- Charter schools take money away from neighborhood public schools. Most schools are funded per-capita, so fewer students means less money. But many costs are fixed/discrete (e.g. school nurse costs N thousand dollars).

- Charter schools have inflated performance metrics. Often charter schools don't serve special needs students. More than that, charter schools bias towards engaged and interested parents. Because of policies like No Child Left Behind, it is really bad for local neighborhood schools to have all of their high performing students leave for charter schools.

- Corporatization is evil. Charter schools often run more like a business than a socialized institution. Some even pay kids for good grades. Often, the success of a charter school depends on marketing, and successful marketing depends on performing well on metrics. Charter schools are then incentivized to "teach to the test" and potentially force out students who don't perform well. "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."

This is such a cool story. I hope it works out for everyone involved.

Because in practice many of them are intended to defund the public school system.

Maybe blowing up the whole thing is the solution to bad management (which is the case in many school systems), but doing it circuitously sucks.