"Carpetbaggers" and "Charlatans" just might be better than the Current Public School Administrators

There is a sentence in this NY Times article that contained the descriptive words of people/institutions trying to fix education: "carpetbaggers" and "charlatans". Who deserves those titles? Those pesky charter schools and other individuals who are diverting from the time tested (and failed) union teachers and the Department of Education over that last 40 years:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/education/10schools.html

Imagine that. The New York Times doesn't want to spend Race to the Top money on trying new school structures and instructive techniques. I do not want to support charter schools who have not done the job they contracted out to do; however, it does no good for the taxpayers to acquiesce state control of education and throw more money at public education for the same failing results they've seen over the last four decades.

As I understand it, parents don't have to send a child to a charter school. The parents choose the school over a public school. If a charter school is shown to be under performing or failing, the charter is revoked and the school is closed. Why can't this be applied to failing public schools as well?

Now that would be reform worth supporting.