If you want to compete with these Charter Schools, then don't use these isolated instances of sensationalized journalism to try and make broad generalizations about all Charter Schools, but how about instead you focus on improving our public school system so that we're not driving families to these alternatives? I'm a product of a public school education (high school graduate in 2003), and I remember people would fail classes, students would be held back grades, teachers would grade our papers with red ink, not everyone was given a pat on the shoulder and told "good job for trying, here's a gold star."
Our current public school system is one based on passing arbitrary standardized tests, where teachers are hounded by administrators that haven't seen a classroom in 15+ years to make sure their kids pass. My sister in law teaches elementary school. She is forbidden from giving any student a grade less than 50% on an assignment. Don't turn it in? That's okay! Here's a 50%! Didn't answer the question correctly. That's okay, at least you tried. Math is hard! Here's a 50%! She can't even grade students papers in red ink because of the psychological "trauma" that it will cause. Come on people...give me a break!
The real psychological trauma will be when these kids are passed all of the way through high school with a 4th grade reading level, no ability for critical thinking, and a chip on their shoulder that they're smart and they'll never experience failure. What our public schools are doing is wussifying our kids and making them think that they don't have to work hard to succeed. They are going to be sadly mistaken when they go to college (because, you know, nowadays every kid DESERVES to go to college) or get their first job and they end up failing a class or getting fired because they aren't capable or willing to do the hard work.
Parents that don't care are a big problem, but by schools caving to these parents and passing them up through the grades without the necessary knowledge, just so they don't have to deal with irate parents, they are doing these kids a disservice. I'm completely for criminal punishment of parents that don't support their children's struggle to obtain a basic minimum education.