[jseliger]

That said, this article fails to mention one of the most salient arguments in favor of charter schools: If education is the primary path for upward social mobility, then every parent should have some choice in where their child goes to school

Actually, I think the most important thing about charter schools is the failure feedback loop: bad ones can fail, which most large, urban school districts can't. No matter how bad a district or school might be, most parents have no cost-effective choice.

Charters at least solve that problem. I don't think they're a panacea or that all charters are automatically better than public schools, but at least they can fail.