Charter schools mixed results: The Washington Post today reports on the good, the bad, and the ugly among D.C. charter schools. The most important lesson is that just because some new age goofball or racial hate monger wants to try out their idea of education doesn't mean they should be allowed. At the New School for Enterprise and Development:

In a history class down the hall, students were talking as a teacher sat behind his desk listening to rap music blaring from a boombox.

Rap was playing in the neighboring classroom, too. The teacher said she was filling in for another instructor and was letting the students spend the period just listening to music because it was Friday and "they have to have one day where they can mellow out."

The sad thing is that the worst examples of charter schools seem to be an improvement over the D.C. public school system.

Phonshanta Franklin said friends told her to avoid the regular schools after she moved from Maryland to Southeast Washington. She picked her four children's charter schools based largely on which ones had space and were closest to her home. "It was just charter schools, period," she said. "It was not which one."

However bad any individual school is, though, the fact that competition has entered the market is a positive. Studies have shown that both charters and voucher programs increase parental involvement which will hold schools accountable in the long run. The market will weed out the idiots.