Regarding the on-going debate within Charterdom about how charter schools should be marketed publicly (see previous post about Jeanne Allen's stinging comments regarding The Oprah here) a mysterious guest-blogger at the Charter Blog offers his/her/its thoughts on this today. Interesting post.

The guest blogger notes that charter legislation has created an escape hatch for kids stuck in failing schools, brought with it built-in accountability (aka closing crappy schools,) and created pressures for public systems to improve.

Here's a sample of the kind of soul-searching that is playing out on the blog, and more generally in public charter school circles on the issue over whether the practice of chartering schools matters as much as using charter-like reform strategies:

The bottom line is this: the unique attributes of charter legislation are indispensable to systemic education reform in the areas that need it most. This is clear to parents without other options and public officials desperate for real change. But the importance of these characteristics increasingly seems to be lost on some of our charter colleagues. Why is that?

These kinds of debates are a good thing, not a sign of a "movement" in peril.