1. The pressure to compete globally -- China -- South Korea -- Finland -- 2. The messy beauty of American public education -- Education of a public responsibility -- Opening the schoolhouse doors to all children -- 3. School choice as a means to preserve racial desegregation -- Massive resistance -- Resistance in other Southern states -- Bringing it home -- literally -- 4. Milton Friedman and his unrealistic school choice -- The role of government in education -- Not greed, but social responsibility -- Vouchers: The choice belongs to whom? -- 5. The origin of the charter school -- The charter school concept -- AFT President Albert Shanker and the school-within-a-school -- Shanker, Budde, and the charter school -- Let the charter legislation (and charter school opportunism) begin -- 6. Who wants charters? -- Charter schools: Bipartisan with a conservative streak -- No Child Left Behind: Proposing charters as a solution -- Racing to the top via a charter cash competition -- What the Waltons want -- The American Legislative Exchange council -- Hedge funders and the charter school investment -- 7. The charter take-away from the neighborhood public school -- The 21st-century charter threat, test scores, and poverty -- Charter schools: Funding absent accountability -- Issues of funding parity and evaluations of quality -- Waitlist illusions -- The charter school take-away -- 8. For-profit charters (and associated for-profit edcuation business opportunities) -- The big business of charter schools -- For-profit imagine schools -- The charter school gravy train -- Nonprofit charters and the corporate tax break: Brighter choice -- The proliferation of for-profit charters -- For-profit academica -- For-profit national heritage academies -- Regaining prosperity in the for-profit education industry (?) -- For-profit K12 -- What about the kids? -- 9. No excuse charters, broken windows, and micromanaged behavior -- Regulated environment -- A bit about KIPP -- No excuses academic research shyness -- Escaping from no excuses -- Broken windows theory -- The up-side of no excuses -- If you can't bend 'em, suspend 'em -- 10. Gulen charters: A powerful Turkish cleric's followers find a cozy home in the American taxpayer pocket -- The Stahl treatment of Gulen -- Mary Addi alerts the FBI -- The Gulen force in Turkey -- More on Addi, the FBI, and Gulen entanglements -- Gulen schools in Los Angeles -- Gulen in Georgia (no longer) -- Gulen: Good for American public education? -- 11. Some final thoughts on school choice -- Challenges to vouchers -- The Feds and school choice -- The confrontation.