ooops - and just when your common sense was being remarked on here...you had to say that district control is better than charters. Charters can be anything, run by anyone, within certain limits. District-control, however, means more money for unnecessary administrative employees and expenses, less room for parent-teacher decision-making, and those who left the classroom because they didn't want to teach making decisions for those who stayed because they WANT to.     Be afraid, be very afraid, of district OR state control. Americans are responsible enough to run local schools, but we hesitate to say the same about unwieldy, trendy and fad-driven bureaucracies.