Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public funding but are not subject to all of the rules and regulations that public schools must follow. http://www.nea.org/home/16332.htm Charter schools do not have to have the typical seven-hour school day, but can make their own structure and regulations. They can create their own creative style of teaching and methods to encourage the students to success. Each charter school is governed privately and must prove its success or be shut down. Charter schools are run by companies, municipalities, parents or individuals depending on the situation. http://www.charterschoolsusa.com/ These schools are chances for students to succeed from creative and alternative teaching methods rather than attend public school.

The idea of a ‘charter school’ had its inception around the 1970s where Ray Budde offered the concept that teachers should be given charters (or contracts) by the local school boards to use new, creative approaches different from typical schooling. The concept of charter schools proceeded to the late 1980s with the help of Albert Shanker, a former president of the American Federation for Teachers, and schools within schools, called ‘charters’ began in Philadelphia. Slowly, one by one, states started passing charter schools: for instance, Minnesota passed a charter school law in 1991 and California did as well in 1992. In just nine years, the number of states that passed the charter school law went from 19 to 42. Eventually, charter schools gained wide popularity of almost all states within the United States and are now publically funded.http://www.publicschoolreview.com/articles/3

Today, there are nearly 5,000 charter schools across the United Stateshttp://www.edreform.com/charter_schools/maps/ including the District of Columbia and also Puerto Rico. Charter schools continue to receive public funding state and nation-wide. Each charter school is unique from the next (which coincides with the very nature of charter schools) and each school picks its own distinct creative method of teaching its students to success.