His approach is polite and he keeps it short; there are only a few troublemakers. But he's also careful because parents in this tiny dairy community no longer have to send their children to Gooding Elementary School, or even Gooding Middle School. Starting this fall, they'll also be able to opt out of the traditional public high school here.

That choice is as Idaho lawmakers intended when they authorized charter schools a decade ago, part of a wave of states that embraced an alternative to the conventional classroom.

Since then, conventional public schools across the state have lost students to charter schools. Gooding, however, is the poster child for the impact of charter schools on one of the poorest districts in the state.

"I'm not sure they totally understood what they were doing, the ramifications of putting a charter in a rural school district," Spiropulos said. "Now they know."