Truth about charter schools

The New York Times wrote this about charter schools but here is the rest of the story. It shouldn't be a surprise that the teacher unions, like any vested interest facing movements that are challenging their monopoly, are eager to spread disinformation. Choice is a good thing! An excerpt from Chester Finn's piece in the New York Post:

THIS week's firestorm over the performance of charter schools can be traced to a mischief-bearing grenade hand-delivered by the charter-hating American Federation of Teachers to The New York Times.

The data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), regarding the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores of 4th graders attending a sample of charter schools in 2003, have been sitting around for nine months as NCES analysts have been (slowly) working on their own report. But in the meantime, AFT analysts released their own analysis to the Times. The story that resulted "Nation's Charter Schools Lagging Behind, U.S. Test Scores Reveal" is wrong on just about every point that matters. Let me note five points in particular from the AFT's findings.