Since charter schools first appeared in 1991, state legislatures have used them to spur education reform. With charter schools' rapid growth, to almost 2700 charter schools serving 684,000 students, a variety of legal issues have emerged. This Article examines several of these issues and describes the approaches used by different state legislatures and courts to resolve them. The issues implicated in these charter school laws often concern seminal features that have traditionally marked a distinction between private and public education. Part I examines issues affecting the establishment of charter schools, including the sponsorship of charter schools; the conversion of private schools to charter schools; the provisions for home schools and cyber schools; the involvement of for-profit charter school management companies; and the finality of decisions made by charter-granting authorities. Part II explores questions related to charter schools' operations, focusing on tuition; the application of health and safety standards; and the standards guiding revocation, charter renewal or non-renewal decisions, and contract enforcement.