Chapter 2: American Charter Schools and British Academy Trusts: A Comparative Perspective on the School Choice Movement Since the 1990s

American charter schools and British academy trusts are institutions that resulted from the school choice movement that appeared on both sides of the Atlantic in the last decades of the twentieth century. The issue of school choice as a matter of public debate in the United States (US) began in the 1990s. Simultaneously, education activists within the United Kingdom (UK) seized on the idea of increasing school choice within that country. Various pressure groups across the Atlantic Ocean expressed the conviction that widening school options for school-age children and their parents would increase school efficiency. In both cases, decentralization and local control were twin mechanisms employed toward this common goal.