As charter schools multiply, public school teachers and administrators need to understand the policy landscape in which charters are skimming money from their traditional local public schools, making scarce resources even scarcer. In this essay, the author discusses a related phenomenon that is part of some school reform plans--the reconstitution of traditional public schools into charter schools. While charter supporters argue in favor of having a choice of schools for their children to attend, the author would object if that choice ends up splitting the system, starving the traditional public schools of adequate resources, and inevitably destroying the local public schools. He argues that charter schools are a niche idea that has now grown into a business.