Instead of my letter, the NYT today ran this ill-informed drivel by someone who’s obviously never set foot in a charter school:

To the Editor:

Re: "Scholarly Investments" (Sunday Styles, Dec. 6):

Hedge fund managers and analysts may think they are getting their revenge on the jocks who teased them back in school by creating charter schools that have selective admissions requirements. What they are actually doing is going against the principles of No Child Left Behind, the very law that essentially has given them a free hand in charter school creation. The intent of the law was to make sure that every child received an equal education. Charter schools, which only take a few of the students who apply for admission, leave behind those who need help the most.

On top of that no one has documented the dismissal procedure of these charters, but it is obvious from everything written about them that you get the boot if you don't produce. By stacking the deck, charters avoid all the rigors that force the public schools to be labeled "failures."

If charter schools really work, then let them begin by taking only the students who are failing in public schools. Let the charter school leaders come back in three to five years and say, "Look what we did with the students you couldn't get to succeed!"

Gerard Iannelli

The writer is a teacher at Williamstown Middle School in Williamstown, N.J.