Public schools are attempting to innovate, but the serious people remain dubious:

In the next few weeks, a district-union committee will recommend which Seattle schools should become Creative Approach Schools next fall — schools that, like charters, will have the flexibility to try new ways to raise the achievement of students, especially those from poor families.

[...] Yet those high hopes stand alongside skepticism and concern, most of which has focused on just who controls the program and how.

A union-district committee designed much of the program, without as much board and public input as some thought should occur.

[...] Charter-school supporters are dubious as well, saying Creative Approach Schools will be charter-lite schools, without full control over their staffing or curriculum.

Personally, I don't see what the big deal is. My daughter went to a Montessori program within a Seattle public school. The flexibility to innovate has always been there. There's nothing particularly magical about it. Unless, of course, by "innovation," what you're really talking about is crushing the teachers unions.