The paper introduces the concept of charter schools and then discusses California's specific charter laws. Further, the report discusses the petitioners' experiences in initiating charter schools, including reasons for seeking charter status and how they garnered local support for their petitions.

After a year of operation, the benefits and challenges of charter status can be brought to light. These include regulatory relief, autonomy, union representation, and the challenge of increasing parent involvement.

The report also addresses the question of why California, a state with more than 7,500 elementary and secondary schools, boasted only 44 charter schools by the end of 1994, less than half the authorized ceiling of 100. The paper lists many reasons why, including: the discouraging burden of accountability provisions and of starting a charter; lack of assistance and start-up funds; ambiguous laws concerning autonomy; lack of promotion on the part of the school district; the unappealing prospect of board control; and, simply, lack of interest.

The many and varied survey findings offered in this report provide an impression of California's early charter school efforts. However, the authors conclude the paper by listing those impressions which seem to warrant on-going attention, such as the resistance of districts to allow the independence of charter schools, and the higher number of obstacles urban, rather than rural, schools face in developing a charter.

Finally, based on the survey's findings, the authors make legislative recommendations to facilitate the formation of charter schools, including clarifying a charter's legal status and providing financial and technical support.