Operating out of a church basement in Durham, North Carolina, the Healthy Start Academy has done a dramatically good job educating poor children. After a full year at the charter school, performance of kindergartners on standardized tests jumped from the 42nd percentile to the 99th percentile, first-graders from the 21st percentile to the 34th, and second-graders from the 34th to the 75th—all for $2,800 less per pupil than the state's public schools. But the state Board of Education is now threatening to close down the school because its student body is not racially balanced. While the surrounding school district is 45 percent black, Healthy Start's student body is 99 percent black. Twelve other charter schools, eleven of which are majority-black, are also threatened with closure.

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