Governance lessons - The case of charter schools

Charter schools are one of the newest, most frequent, and controversial app roaches to introducing parental choice and competition in educational syste ms. The policy questions raised by charter schools involve not only organiz ational and management concerns but also key issues of governance. This art icle examines how the theories arguments, and findings of earlier studies o n the use of other marker mechanisms in local governance may inform the cur rent debate about charter schools. By highlighting the presuppositions and results of the local government reform experience, the authors conclude tha t the use of market mechanisms like charter schools should be approached wi th caution.