Thousands of California students were left to look for new schools after one of the nation's largest charter school operators shut its doors. The closure of the 5-year-old California Charter Academy (CCA), which ran about 60 schools under four charters and enrolled some 10,000 students, represents one of the largest charter school failures since the nation's first such independent public school opened in 1991. The news was not all bad in California, where many charter advocates were happy to see CCA shut its schools. This article reports on CCA's faulty management and abuse of state regulations.