WHAT IS the difference between a charter school and a public school?

OK, that is a trick question. Charter schools are public schools. And yet charter schools in New Hampshire are on the verge of collapse for lack of funding.

The state's eight charter schools educate 329 students -- students who struggled to learn in traditional public schools. Many of them report that they are thriving in their new environments. That should please the public education establishment.

Instead, much of that establishment is trying to starve the charter schools to death and force the students back into traditional public schools.

Charter schools in New Hampshire get about 40 percent of the funding regular public schools get. They need more. But House Bill 752, which would have raised that amount, was held in committee.

Meanwhile, the state is sending mixed signals about the value it places on these state-funded alternative schools. The Department of Education has requested legislation to reduce the amount of state funds charter schools receive. At the same time, Education Commissioner Lyonel Tracy speaks highly of charter schools.

"This is not the time to quit on our charter schools. They're all our kids," Tracy said at a charter school rally last week.

That is a refreshing attitude from the head of public education in New Hampshire.

Tracy needs to speak up more forcefully about the value of educational choice. The current Legislature is skeptical, to say the least. They need to be educated, and Tracy is the one to do it.

Legislators need to hear again and again that "they're all our kids," as Tracy said. Charter schools can reach kids that regular public schools cannot. The state needs to see that they are supported, not starved.