Voters may have defeated Utah's school voucher program for now, but charter schools - the state's existing alternative to traditional public schools - have more support than ever.

Waiting lists at some schools exceed 1,000 students, and multimillion-dollar campuses have been built for generations of students to come.

Larry Silver, a New Jersey transplant, is one satisfied parent who believes a charter school has pulled off an educational miracle. At Odyssey Charter School in American Fork, where reading classes have no more than 12 students, his children aren't invisible anymore.

"My children are enthusiastic about going to school again," he said. "They haven't been that way since we moved here."

Approved nearly a decade ago as Utah's most daring experiment in school choice, charter schools are no longer experimental. Fifty-eight schools enroll about 22,000 students who follow programs that specialize in areas such as performing arts, math and science.

The schools are part of what many call a parallel system that is increasingly entrenched. From the program's inception through the end of this school year, more than $300 million will have been spent on charter schools.

Happy parents such as Silver see them as far superior to traditional public schools.

Are they really better? No one really knows.

Unlike other states, Utah has engaged in no recent research to gauge the academic success or failure of its charter program.

Heralded as greenhouses for education where innovative ideas could be nurtured and shared, charter schools and school districts rarely communicate, critics say. What may or may not be a great gift to education is hidden away in charter school buildings scattered across the state.

The money keeps being spent, but should it be?

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The charter draw: The appeal of Utah's charter schools is reflected in the hormone-free milk served at Open Classroom Charter School. Choosing what to feed children is one of the ways a school can exert its independence, as the Salt Lake City school did this fall.

A seemingly small decision, it is among the factors that lure parents to charters rather than their neighborhood schools. In other cases, uniforms reminiscent of private school, patriotism and a sense of security tug parents to the charter school door.

The teaching style itself may seem starkly different from a typical public school, as it does at American Preparatory Academy in Draper. This fall, the new kindergartners briskly chanted answers, marine-like, as they participated in "direct instruction," a popular teaching technique that uses choral responses and fast pacing to create momentum and group participation.

But in other schools, even the principals concede that the educational approach is not always that different.

"I really don't think there's fundamentally that big of a difference, enough of a difference to say that charters trump traditional public schools," said Darren Beck, the director of Ranches Academy, a charter school in Eagle Mountain. "Everybody is doing what they can with the number of students [they have.]"

As a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school, Ranches Academy's enrollment is capped at 450. At a Jordan School District middle school, which cannot limit enrollment, student numbers can run as high as 1,000 or more. Charter school parents often want to escape the crowds.

"That's one of the big things they like, that their child is not just a number," Beck said. "I've always believed if traditional public schools could limit class size and keep campus size a little bit smaller, it could be the same thing. Parents could feel that way about their traditional public school."

Consistent at charters and popular among parents is the near universal commitment to small class size. Some schools actually limit the number, others set targets. Because charter schools do not have to accept every student who applies, as a traditional public school does, they can control their numbers.

Charter schools can give students who feel anonymous in a larger school a chance to participate.

"I had kids try football who had never played before," said Rob Muhlestein, the director of American Leadership Academy in Spanish Fork. "They didn't know where to line up for kickoff."

In the 2005-06 school year, the most recent data available, student-to-teacher ratios showed about 1.5 fewer students per elementary school teacher at a charter school than at a traditional public school. For middle school and high school students in charter schools, the numbers were even more stark. District schools had almost four more students per teacher than charter schools.

High test scores convinced Silver that Odyssey was a good school, but it's up for debate whether charter school students are more successful in their new schools and if so why - not to mention which models really work.

"We need to know especially when the charter schools are growing," said Yongmei Ni, an assistant professor at the University of Utah.

Both researchers and state education officials would like more answers.

Ni hopes to begin a study in the coming months of the state's charter schools as a researcher with the Utah Education Policy Center.

Some of the questions that are expected to be explored include how charters are working compared with traditional public schools and what the benefits are for students and their families.

It's unclear what Utah parents are most unsatisfied with at public schools, something researchers also would like to examine.

"We don't have evidence that parents who do choose charter schools are doing so because they are dissatisfied with their current school," said Andrea Rorrer, director of the policy center.

Ni's previous analysis of the Michigan charter school system found that charter schools did not always create competition with traditional public schools. However, the student population there was not growing as it is in Utah.

She looked at which students went to charters and what the effect of their departure was on student composition. Like a ripple, charter schools increased the percentage of low-income minorities in traditional public schools, particularly in inner cities.

Student scores at traditional public schools dropped, particularly in the inner cities, and special education students remained.

Ni stresses that her findings may be quite different in Utah because of the population makeup. In Texas and Florida, researchers found charter schools have had a positive effect on traditional public schools, especially on raising test scores.

But the research is mixed on whether charter schools are more effective than traditional public schools in increasing student achievement.

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Breaking down walls: Sonia Woodbury, the director of City Academy, one of the state's first charters, wonders why many of the newer charter schools look strikingly the same. She wonders why the charter program can grow at public expense when there's no evidence that the schools are doing something better.

She blames the charter legislation for failing to demand more. No one's asking charters to prove that they're doing something different than the public school down the street, Woodbury said.

"We're duplicating services with public dollars," she said. "If they're using public money, there needs to be a clearer and higher standard."

But often a stone wall exists between districts and charters, particularly when it comes to sharing educational success. That could be about to change. A Jordan School District principal recently expressed interest in finding out more about charter programs, and the district may arrange something of a field trip to charters in future months.

But traditional public schools already are busy, some say overwhelmed, with all they have to do.

Carolyn Sharette, the director at American Preparatory Academy, said she would love for any school to come tour her school and learn from its success.

"It's sad we're not sharing," she said. "If you're a mom and you see this, wouldn't you do anything to get your kids here?"

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Less oversight here: Legislative reports and newspaper headlines have highlighted issues of accountability at charter schools over the past few years. After the Auditor General's Office emphasized that officials were ignoring state rules, the state charter school office began to work toward a new accountability system, which will go into effect in the 2008-09 school year.

Unlike some other states, Utah's charter schools essentially get approved for "life." The state has yet to shut down a charter school for financial, academic or other reasons.

Charter schools face a different level of scrutiny in other states, including Colorado, where schools have contracts. Most charter schools in Colorado begin with a three-year term. The state has had about eight schools close, primarily for financial reasons after students didn't show or facility costs grew too high. Academic or financial problems can lead to charters being put on probation.

As states enter their ninth or 10th year of charter schools, they begin to scrutinize issues such as accountability and achievement - the direction Utah itself appears to be headed.

"I don't think Utah is fully grown yet," said Marlies Burns, director of the Utah charter school office.

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* JULIA LYON can be contacted at jlyon@sltrib.com or 801-257-8748.