In Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners v. City Neighbors Charter School, 400 Md. 324, 342, 929 A.2d 113 (2007), the appellants, a city board of school commissioners and a local board of education, sought review of three declaratory rulings of the State Board that established standards for determining the amount of funding that three charter schools were entitled to receive from their local boards of education. Balt. City Bd. of Comm'rs, 400 Md. at 328. In its rulings, the State Board stated that its opinions should provide "guidance and direction" to other charter school applicants and local school systems. Id. at 344. Appellants argued that the State Board's rulings were void because they constituted a "regulation" under Maryland Code, 10-101(g) of the State Government Article that the Board adopted without conforming to the rule-making requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act. Id. The Court of Appeals disagreed: "We have recognized that administrative agencies have discretion to establish policy either through the adoption of regulations or through ad hoc contested case adjudications and that it would be "patently unreasonable" to conclude that "every time an agency explains the standards through which it applies a statute in a contested proceeding it is promulgating rules." Declaratory rulings are thus a permissible mechanism by which the State Board may exercise its statutory authority to "explain the true intent and meaning" of the public school laws and decide "controversies and disputes" under those laws." Id. at 345-46. Judge Wilner, writing for the Court of Appeals, summarized the concept and philosophy behind charter schools: Charter schools are in the nature of semi-autonomous public schools that operate under a contract with a State or local school board. The contract, or charter, defines how the school will be structured, staffed, managed, and funded, what programs will be offered, and how the school will operate and account for its activities. The movement to create charter schools, either by converting existing schools or by starting new ones, began in the 1990s from a growing concern that the public schools, at least in some areas, were not living up to legitimate public expectations, and the movement took root and spread quickly The principal objective of those who desired to create such schools -- parents, educators, community groups, private entities -- was to develop and implement innovative and more effective educational programs, and, to do that, they needed and demanded freedom from some of the structural, operational, fiscal, and pedagogical controls that governed the traditional public school system. Id. at 328-29.