Surprisingly, charter schools are being maligned. According to the Smoky Mountain News:

School board members are confused as to why a piece of legislation that would lift the cap on charter schools and potentially dissipate resources is being pushed when school systems across the state are facing unprecedented budget cuts.

A basic course in economics might teach that competition has a way of keeping costs down. The superintendent of Ashe County Schools, Travis Reeves, however, had a valid complaint:

The whole key and one of the points I’ve tried to make is that if charter schools are about innovation and creativity then take some of the strings off of us [public schools] and give us the innovation and creativity to use monies in different ways.

The Ashe School Board approved a resolution opposing pending legislation that would lift the cap on the number of charter schools allowed in the state. The board it would create for oversight was to contain no public school representation, further discrediting the effort in the eyes of its opponents.

Today, Blake and Lesley on Local Edge Radio 880AM argued the plan to expand charter schools was tied to a plot by the EAP (Evil Art Pope), and the host of names on a big termite diagram, to do away with the middle class. At least one caller said those who contribute to the local rag to which I regularly contribute are all liars, so I leave it to the reader to explain this paragraph.