Reflections on the Coleman Report

In the discussions about charter schools, I cannot help but to feel like education is becoming like a business more than a service. And maybe I am cynical, but I don't see how using a different name for the same educational system is a problem-solving strategy. While charter schools may advertise notably good teachers or curriculum, there is no reason why public schools cannot match and deliver the same quality educational experience to students. In either position, teachers are being paid, so a teacher's performance should not correlate to the schools funding, or lack thereof.
However, it is fair to say that the performance of students may be an indicator of poor teachers, which would call for some changes in the system. How do we prevent "bad" teachers from being hired. How do we protect and acknowledge "good teachers"? Charter schools, I feel, are a temporary solution to a continuous and difficult problem facing an inherently cumbersome system.
People argue that school funding is the root of the issue, and that charter schools are being offered up as one the the options for students. But I really wonder in the class room actually looks and works differently than a public school classroom. I truly struggle to understand the difference between the types of schools, seeing as at the end of the day, students are expected to master the same material. At this level in the conversation, it becomes about teacher quality.
Still, students are not doing well by our standards, and we (as a nation) blame school funding, bad teachers, and whatever external forces are available to blame, but we neglect often the implications of a child's socio-economic status. We, as teachers or as voters, can do everything possible to make a classroom great, but when it boils down, what is left is a child's home life and its lasting effects.
In the 1960's James Coleman put these inquiries into question and tried to understand this element in the classroom dynamic. Conclusively, students were inherently less likely to achieve in the classroom because of the economic segregation.

I think that instead of renaming the same system that is blamed for failing students, I think the structure of the way schools are divided socioeconomically would be more beneficial to students.

Here is an article that discusses the Coleman Report
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-no-excuses-makes-no-sense-revisiting-the-coleman-report/2011/07/23/gIQAo7W7UI_blog.html