Scholarly writing in the field of education policy analysis often considers two conflicting governance agendas: the social-democratic "public" agenda and the relatively young "neoliberal" governance agenda. These agendas are frequently described as being part of a process of transformation from public or state to private education, with an intermediate "hybrid" phase of public-private mixture. Considering this dichotomous framework, this paper wishes to demonstrate and reinforce an alternative, non-dichotomous way of understanding education governance in which public-private "hybridity" is, and historically was, a longstanding, solid foundation, rather than merely a developmental stage of school governance. This alternative narrative is illustrated based on a historical analysis of Israeli "Charter-Type" schools as a representative case.