So What is the Deal with Charter Schools?

Recently the New York Times published an article Study Shows Better Scores for Charter School Students.
In this article the debate of charter school vs. public schools are brought up. As is noted in the article, it shows that in a study students that won the lottery and were accepted into the charter schools fared better on the New York state exam than their fellow students who entered the lottery and did not receive a seat (and in turn attended public schools).

So what is a charter school?
As defined by US Charter Schools,

"Charter schools are nonsectarian public schools of choice that operate with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. The "charter" establishing each such school is a performance contract detailing the school's mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success...They are accountable for both academic results and fiscal practices to several groups: the sponsor that grants them, the parents who choose them, and the public that funds them."

  

The main thing to gain is that it is a public school that operates on a different scale. This means that the charter school does not have to follow all the rules public schools do, as long as they can prove that the methods work. This means, better test scores. So some charter schools have class on the weekends and have longer school years. Also, teacher salary may be based on the performance rather than designated salary provided by the union.  

Here is a real life example for you. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston schools are required to teach math through the Turk method. This method emphasis mental math and finding "strategies" to solve math problems. Go to any public school in Massachusetts and you will see the blue and white workbooks. However, charter schools do not need to follow this rule. The Neighborhood House Charter School in Boston does not use this math method, rather working with the old school algorithm method. This is just one example of it. 

So what is the deal? Why doesn't the public sector follow the lead of the charter school? Really, it is more politics then anything. Charter schools are few in number and their policies can be altered. To change a whole entire state's education system would have to deal with weeks of teacher training and policy reform. In the end, it is easier to leave things as is. Of course this isn't always the case...