When I spoke in favor of charter schools to our state legislature at the beginning of the charter school movement, one of the points that I highly endorsed was the idea of influencing and competing with the conventional schooling system. Today, that system is still in place and has given up any form of innovation as it seeks to make all schools alike and avoid financial penalties. Charter schools have become a way to outsource students (like jobs), who are often unsuccessful in the mainstream school, or for those parents who don't want their kids educated in a low income urban school.
I still support charter schools, they are increasing in numbers, and those that work seem to work because parents care, students care, and instructors care. Plus, they are often smaller environments, don't have the same kind of pressures as larger district controlled schools have, and they are willing and able to cater to specific segments of school age families. These are things that are difficult for larger mainstream schools to adopt or sustain. Also, these schools seem to revert back to what the public and those who teach in them are most familiar with, after trying to reform, or as the grant money disappears.
Posted as a reply to:
Influencing Traditional Public Schools - Working With Districts by Bob Montgomery 
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