Charter schools were once hailed by supporters as a way to save public education in big urban districts. Founders presented them as a way to offer low-income minority families safe, orderly schools with rigorous academics, and they were embraced across the country as a hopeful alternative.

But charter school executives have recently started to acknowledge shortcomings, as questions about whether they are fulfilling their mission have mounted. Democratic presidential candidates have turned away from the charter movement. Last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the New York State Legislature would not raise a cap on the number of charters in New York City, halting the growth of the model in the country’s largest school system.

Eliza Shapiro, a New York City education reporter, and Dodai Stewart, deputy editor of the Metro desk, dialed into a conference call with New York Times subscribers on Thursday morning to discuss the backlash against charters. Ms. Shapiro discussed her recent article on the changing attitudes toward charter schools and what she discovered in her reporting. Read a lightly edited excerpt from their conversation, led by Ms. Stewart, here.

DODAI STEWART: How did this story come about and what was the reporting process like?



ELIZA SHAPIRO: I have been writing about charter schools in New York for the last six years. I had been hearing from some of my sources who run charter schools, work in charter schools, think about charter schools, that there had been sort of this sea change in how willing leaders of charters were to acknowledge shortcomings in their schools.