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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Parents have a lot of options when it comes to their children's education.

One option for parents is a charter school. But is it really any different from a traditional public school? And is one type better than the other?

Charter schools are perhaps best known for their ability to focus on specific areas like music and art, or science and technology.

Mark Hyatt, Executive Director of the Colorado Charter School Institute, said charter schools are simply public schools with a little more flexibility to try new approaches to education.

"Charter schools are given a lot of autonomy to really innovate and be entrepreneurs," Hyatt said.

Unlike traditional public schools with set curriculums, charter schools are, in essence, able to create their own ideal school within certain guidelines.

"They are parent-driven schools, and they're allowed to make a lot of decisions at the lowest, at the school level, like what kind of finances, what kind of budget, what kind of pay scales, what kind of governance, what kind of curriculum they're gonna use," Hyatt said. "And that really to me is the major difference."

Classical Academy President David Bohn said there are still requirements his school must meet.

"We are able to design our own curriculum, but we do have to do the testing that they ask us to do, the No Child Left Behind and other kinds of testing," Bohn said.

Charter schools must create a contract, known as a charter, with their district that they both agree on.

"A charter school is a public school that operates with a contract with either a school district or the Colorado Chartering Authority, so the school district has supervision or authority over the charter school through its charter contract," Dr. Mark Hatchell, Superintendent of Academy School District 20, said.

But because charter schools somewhat play by their own rules, they also put a lot more at risk.

"If parents don't choose to come to charter schools, they go out of business," Hyatt said. "Whereas a traditional district public school, if they, if the parents are unhappy with it, they'll usually make changes, get new leadership, maybe new teachers, but the school doesn't go out of business because it's part of the community."

Because of the way state laws and regulations are set up, charter schools operate on less funding than traditional schools.

"When it comes to the funding of charter schools, there's a lot of debate over how much should go to traditional versus the charter school and bonding capacity," Hatchell said. "So the financial part is really an interesting one with people on both sides of the equation as to how much funding is equal for a charter school versus a traditional school."

Bohn knows the realities of the budget breakdown and has to manage with whatever he is given.

"We have to try to make due with the funding that we get, and so we have to run a very frugal operation, a very effective operation, a very lean operation, and that's what we do," said Bohn.

Hyatt said in some ways charter schools are run more like a business than a traditional school.

"They have to really be entrepreneurial in the way that they approach their finances," Hyatt said. "Many of the charter schools will have churches or other paying customers that come in and use their facilities on weekends or in the evenings when charter school children are not in school."

Critics of charter schools said some hand-pick only the best students.

"Charter schools are not allowed to discriminate," Hyatt said. "We have to go by the laws. We have to have special education, we get to have english as a second language, we work with all the different needs."

Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools are allowed to hire teachers that aren't certified, which some critics said hurts the students.

"Some of them might have a Ph.D., yet they may not be certified, but they may be very good in their subject area, and I've seen evidence of that," Hyatt said.

Still, school officials agree that its up to the parents to choose which school is right for their child.

"I would encourage them to really pay attention, to go, to explore, to really ask questions, to find out what happens in the classroom," Bohn said.

Hatchell agrees.

"Some families like a charter setting better, some like a more traditional public school setting better than the charter," Hatchell said. "So it really goes to family preference as far as if one is better than the other or not."

Parents looking for a school that focuses on certain subject areas may even be able to find it in a traditional school setting.

"The most wonderful thing about America right now as we improve education is that there's more and more choices, and I'll tell ya what I see is districts all over our state providing more and more choices, and in a way acting like charter schools," Hyatt said. "Because they say 'hey the parents want choice, we're gonna give it to them within the district context' so maybe someday there wont be a need for charter schools."

Hatchell said he likes the choices parents have today.

"We have a number of choices for parents," Hatchell said. "We're known as a choice school district, from technology schools to international baccalaureate, and a charter is just another one of the choices in our school district for the parents who want to choose for their students."