“I don’t think there is a more important story in this new year of 2006 than what happens to the country’s growing charter schools. …But no matter what happens to the [No Child Left Behind] federal law, we are going to continue to try to improve schools in this country, one way or another. I would prefer to spend my time looking at the most interesting and encouraging efforts to do so, and that means checking on the charter schools — independently run public schools — since they have the most freedom to innovate”. –Jay Mathews, writing in the Washington Post