While some mayors watch their cities’ schools sink deeper into failure and fiscal chaos, Oakland’s Mayor Jerry Brown and Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson are using charter schools to help students and shake up the government education monopoly.

Charter schools are deregulated public schools that gain freedom from regulation in return for meeting the goals of their establishing charter. Over the past decade charter schools have proven an effective way to promote parental choice, high standards, and local control. But these gains have not been achieved without a fight.

In California, charter applicants must win approval from the local school district for their charter, a contract enabling them to operate as a public school with independent oversight. Only if rejected can they appeal to the state. While most of the 344 public charter schools in California have charters from their home school districts, many have gone to an outside district for approval, a move permitted under state law. The state board of education granted charters in two cases, one from Oakland.

With strong support from Oakland parents, Mayor Jerry Brown backed the Oakland Military Institute (OMI), a charter school located on an old military base and run by the California National Guard. Attacked by teacher unions and rejected by the Oakland and Alameda County boards of education, the OMI charter school finally gained approval from California’s state board of education and opened in August.

The first cadets are 162 highly motivated seventh-graders, 67 percent male and 90 percent African American or Latino. Parents are highly satisfied with the tough standards and discipline. Plans are set to expand OMI through high school.

In Indiana, Mayor Bart Peterson of Indianapolis rallied the support of other Indiana mayors and the United Auto Workers in a successful fight against the educational status quo. His efforts helped make Indiana the 37th state to pass charter-school legislation. Unlike California, Indiana’s new law gives city mayors, school boards, and universities the authority to approve charters. But these reform-minded mayors found themselves onto the education establishment’s hit list.

In late November, Indiana superintendents from 32 urban school districts called for a moratorium on approving charter schools until the legislature can fix what they consider an “unfair” funding scheme. The controversial move came just one week before Mayor Peterson planned to approve the first charter schools in Indiana.

But while some mayors buck the establishment, others side with it. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown sat idle as the city’s school board revoked the charter from the Edison Charter Academy on bogus racial pretexts, forcing them to appeal to the state board, which unanimously renewed their charter for another five years. And Mayor Willie Brown did nothing when Superintendent Arlene Ackerman arbitrarily excluded all of the city’s charter schools from the district’s annual public school symposium. This comes at a time when San Francisco’s schools are nearing insolvency, despite four school bond issues and tax measures since 1988.

San Francisco parents and the California Association of Educational Charters (CANEC) decided to take matters into their own hands. They turned not to officials in their own city but to Mayor Jerry Brown—Oakland’s education innovator.

On Wednesday, Mayor Jerry Brown will address parents at the first San Francisco Public Charter School Symposium to discuss the role of charter schools in improving public education. Also scheduled to address those on hand is Reed Hastings, president of the California State Board of Education.

This tale of two mayors provides a lesson for city leaders nationwide. Through their commitment to innovative charter schools, Mayors Peterson of Indianapolis and Brown of Oakland are advancing genuine public education reform.

There’s another lesson to be learned for San Francisco officials. When San Francisco parents look for leadership on education, they look across the bay.

Examiner columnist Sally Pipes is the President and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, a California-based think tank. She can be reached via email at spipes@pacificresearch.org