In The Hill I take a look at what we know about charter schools and how the crazy rhetoric about them obscures the work both “sides” ought to be doing to better serve all kids.

The nation’s first charter school opened in 1992 and there are now more than 7,000 across 43 states and Washington, D.C. Listening to the political debate about charter schools, though, you’d think they are a new idea — or at least one with little grounding in research or practice.

In fact, thanks to a lot of research we know quite a bit about charter schools and charter policy, as well as the complicated issues these publicly-funded but independently-run schools raise…

Entire op-ed here.