One of the most fundamental questions about charter schools--who should have the power to approve them--has re-emerged in force in a number of states. Florida, Georgia, and New Jersey have been the scene of debates this year over whether state or local authorities should have the final say on allowing charter schools within a particular district's boundaries, and over the standards for judging the merits of those largely independent public schools. Charter school proponents have complained for years that local school boards have an incentive to block new schools that can lure students and funding away from regular public schools. Local officials counter that state boards tend to make decisions about charter applications with little if any regard for whether those schools fill an academic need in their communities. The push and pull between state and local officials over charters was on display this month, when the Florida state board of education overruled several local school boards' decisions to reject charter school applications, which included requests to open virtual charters and to replicate academically high-performing schools in new school systems. In Georgia, meanwhile, a ballot measure that goes before voters in the fall would re-establish a state commission with the power to create charters over the objections of local school boards. In New Jersey, a bill sponsored by a Democratic state legislator would require the approval of voters in local communities before the state could approve charters within affected school districts.