Charter Schools in Action: Renewing Public Education.

Few have studied the issue of charter schools for as long or as closely as Chester E. Finn Jr., Bruno V. Manno, and Gregg Vanourek. The product of several years of analysis and detailed case studies, Charter Schools in Action is a comprehensive look at the various laws, policies, and personalities that make up this fledgling reform effort. Parents, teachers, policymakers, and especially potential charter school owners will find the information invaluable. In fact, Finn, Manno--both former U.S. secretaries of education--and Vanourek have so thoroughly documented their research that the book threatens at times to bury the reader beneath a mass of facts, figures, and graphs. Still, this is no dry tome. Interviews with superintendents and school owners are combined with detailed features of schools, students, and parents, many of which paint a rosy portrait of the program. There is no mistaking the enthusiasm and passion these men share for charter schools--they contend that they are one of the last hopes for renewing public education, and they want them to succeed. They do their best to dispel negative notions of the program, such as the complaint that they tend to underserve disabled children and that they rob funds from traditional public schools. And when they do point out problems, they also offer prescriptions for healthy change, arguing, for example, for better accountability and a built-in system of checks and balances. Charter Schools in Action is simply a must for anyone who seeks a solid understanding of the subject. --Jodi Mailander Farrell