Weekend greetings CharterFolk.
I had planned a different kind of post today, one that drilled down on a single topic to help maintain a clear narrative throughline across our content here and the broader efforts we are engaged in. But the cacophony of change arriving at the start of the new year demands a wider lens.
I use my mid-week whip-arounds to share the breadth of developments happening nationwide. That approach allows me to go deeper on a narrower slice during the weekends. I try hard not to let those whip-arounds become just a random collection of articles and links, but instead to draw them together into something coherent, something that reflects not just what is happening across the landscape, but the progress we are collectively trying to make.
Still, there are moments when the sheer volume of news overwhelms the format. Too many developments, coming from too many directions, to fit neatly into a short summary. And when that happens, too much gets left out.
This weekend feels like one of those moments.
So consider this post an attempt to catch up. Call it a Mega-Whip-Around, a broader net of developments, a louder sampling of the cacophony, while still keeping a signal-through-the-noise orientation. My hope is that this clears the runway so I can go deeper, and more narrowly, next week.
To organize it, I am structuring this post around the 10 R’s I see playing out across the country:
- Restructuring
- Reaccelerating
- Revising
- Rescission
- Resistance
- Research
- Relitigating
- Ridiculousness
- Reckoning
- Repeat
Be on notice, CharterFolk. While this post is not overly long in word count, it is chock full of screenshots, articles, research, and links, a scope of digital content that routinely breaks our email server. If you want the full experience, you will need to read it on the website at the link provided.
Let’s get to it.
Restructuring
I start here because I believe this is the lead dog on the charter school sled right now, the force most determining our overall direction, and one that I think will soon pull the entire team even more aggressively in the same direction.
In many parts of the country, we remain in a straightforward “just keep growing” mode, because our movement has not yet reached the scale required to catalyze systemwide impact. But in other places, the restructuring of public education, the perestroika we are ultimately destined to catalyze, is coming into sharper focus.
We see this in the podcast I shared with NewOrleansFolk on Friday.
What has been achieved in New Orleans is nothing short of a complete restructuring of public education. What is available to students and families today is dramatically better than what existed before. It is an accomplishment we should not be sheepish about. We should be unapologetically bullish about it.
It may rightly be called our first North Star.
For a time, we chose to place a cloud between ourselves and that guiding light. But I sense that the sky is beginning to clear.
The clearest evidence of that is what is happening in Indianapolis.
There, restructuring is now fully underway, with a proposal before the legislature that would show our North Star growing into the full constellation we need.
Meanwhile, successful charter schools continue to grow, even in a city where nearly 70 percent of students already attend fully autonomous schools.
At the same time, other legislation advancing in Indiana would allow new, smaller schools to grow into rural areas and would make it easier for district schools to voluntarily convert to charter status.
That is what restructuring actually looks like, not the wiping away of what came before, but its recreation. The redesigning of public education so that all schools can become more excellent and more fair.
Reaccelerating
There is a lot to report here.
Yes, we continue to see charter schools closing. And yes, many charter school organizations, particularly in urban settings, are struggling with enrollment as families leave large cities and birth rates continue to plummet.
But the bigger trend I see on the horizon is a reacceleration of growth, one that could move us faster toward the goal of serving five million students in charter schools before the decade is out.
In Iowa, four new charter schools were approved to open this week. That brings to eight the total number of schools slated to open in the fall, in addition to the ten that are already operating.
This is a state whose charter school story was stalled out for years, but which has seen renewed momentum following common sense changes in state law.
Colorado comes next.
The Colorado League has just announced its second round of grant opportunities under its large CSP grant.
What is striking is that even with a massive first-round investment, the number of high-quality applicants exceeded the funds available. Those close to the process suggest round two may look much the same.
This is happening in a state with one of the highest percentages of charter enrollment in the country.
Tapping out?
Not even close.
In Arizona, charter schools now serve more than 20 percent of public school students, the highest percentage of any state in the nation, with no signs of slowing down.
And across the country, we continue to see new schools in the works, even in the most unexpected places.
Yes, news about school openings is anecdotal, and yes, it is hard to connect every data point to a single growth curve. But I believe we are in the midst of a genuine reacceleration, one that makes it within the realm of the possible that we reach five million charter students by 2030.
Revising
This week, the New Jersey association cited a revision of the state’s charter school law as one that will strengthen the movement for the long term.
These moments are always challenging. Outright charter opponents and thoughtful policymakers alike begin advancing reforms, some reasonable, some potentially very damaging. The fact that a legislative package supported by the vast majority of CharterFolk in the state made it all the way through the process speaks to the advocacy strength the New Jersey association has built in recent years. With a new governor and administration expressing broad support for charter schools, and with this legislative challenge now in the rearview mirror, New Jersey’s charter schools appear well positioned for increased growth and impact for many years to come.
Meanwhile, in Florida, the State Board of Education is preparing revisions to its Schools of Hope program, which provides high-quality charter operators access to underutilized school facilities.
As expected, the proposal has sparked significant blowback from status quo interests. But the Board’s willingness to revisit the rules, while keeping the core program intact, signals both responsiveness and resolve.
Rescission
Rescission is an inevitable part of the charter school equation.
This year, seven charter schools will close in Texas.
I find it difficult to write in support of many non-renewals happening across the country, particularly when they are driven by school districts or entities with clear conflicts of interest, actors who want charter schools closed for reasons that have little to do with performance.
I have more confidence when closure decisions come from state entities, which tend to face fewer such conflicts …
… or from places like New Orleans, where nearly all schools are charter schools.
The big picture to keep in mind is this.
Non-renewals are heartbreaking, but absolutely necessary. They stand in stark contrast to the lack of accountability that persists across vast swaths of public education.
Many forces are working to weaken that accountability, or to weaponize it against charter schools in ways that inflict broader damage. We are not getting everything right. But the basic recipe remains intact, and we must continue pushing to ensure that accountability decisions are made by entities without conflicts of interest.
Resistance
Resistance takes many forms, CharterFolk.
Sometimes, the creativity displayed by the traditional system in finding ways to block charter schools is almost stunning. In Ohio this week, we saw a district work to evade requirements to offer vacant facilities to charter schools by arranging a property swap with another public entity. Anything but making the building available to a charter school.
Montana continues to show creativity as well. Districts there are creating new programs and labeling them “charter schools” in hopes of confusing the public and preventing real charter schools from opening. We have written extensively about this, including a strong Contributor Column from Cathy Kincheloe in December.
If only status quo interests were as creative in expanding educational opportunity as they are in blocking it.
Other times, resistance is more blunt. It is about control of enrollment and money, and that reality was made plain in Monterey this week.
All I can say is that anyone who would not want more schools like Salinas Prep in their community is either deeply beholden to the status quo or simply has not been inside a Navigator school.
Research
There has been a rush of new research relevant to our work. Let me highlight just a few pieces.
A recent article in The 74 examines how charter schools are contributing meaningfully to special education, improving outcomes while reducing the time many students spend in segregated settings.
It helps explain why a growing number of people passionate about improving special education are turning to the charter school movement.
Other research shows higher levels of interest in charter school teaching positions than district ones.
If this trend holds, it suggests we may be returning to a point where charter schools can be more selective, filtering more intentionally for those who truly see themselves as CharterFolk.
Finally, there is a fascinating new paper on grade inflation.
It finds that broad grade inflation weakens learning and long-term outcomes, while selective inflation at the passing margin can improve persistence for lower-achieving students, without improving long-run earnings or educational attainment.
There is a lot to process here. These dynamics are central to one of the biggest challenges we face right now:
Students graduating without the skills they need to build good futures for themselves and their families.
Relitigating
Like it or not, parties with no real stake in the charter school movement continue pushing a religious liberty agenda through charter schools.
The strategy appears to be finding cases that would not require Supreme Court justices to recuse themselves, hence the proposal of a Jewish charter school in Oklahoma. Out-of-state forces have signaled their intent to pursue this path. This week, the local Jewish community pushed back, saying they did not want it.
The solution here is simple.
Oklahoma already has an ESA program that allows families to use public funds for private schools, including religious ones.
What happened to the proposed Catholic charter school that caused so much commotion last year?
It became a private school.
Exactly what it should have been from the beginning.
Any new Jewish school in Oklahoma should be encouraged to follow the same path. There is no need to push court cases that could inflict massive, irreparable harm on the charter school movement.
We should not be relitigating this.
The good answer we need has already been provided.
Ridiculousness
Some of what we contend with in advancing this movement is simply ridiculous.
In Minnesota this week, two charter schools illustrate the point.
One is a Korean-English dual immersion school that had to close in-person instruction due to the impact of immigration raids on its families, and then became a target on social media for expressing support for those families.
The second is even worse.
Renee Good’s children’s charter school was forced into remote learning due to vile threats and attacks.
What is there to do but name this for what it is?
Abject ridiculousness.
Reckoning
Meanwhile, instability at the foundations of our public education delivery system continues to grow.
This week, Tennessee policymakers expressed new seriousness about addressing the crisis in Shelby County.
Governor DeSantis is now talking about taking on something similar in Broward.
And it is not just red states. And it’s not just urban settings.
New Jersey signaled its intent this week to intervene in a failing suburban district.
The sheer scale of change occurring is beyond anything we have seen before.
This week, the West Virginia State Board voted to intervene in yet another failing county.
Thus far the board has had to intervene in eight school districts serving over a tenth of all students in the state.
The reckoning is spreading.
Repeat
Which brings us back to the beginning of the cycle.
Public education is being shaken to its foundations. Cosmetic changes will not do the job. The patterns described above are repeating themselves across states and political contexts, pointing to a system that can no longer be stabilized through marginal fixes.
That makes restructuring, real restructuring, more urgently needed than ever.
And too few have articulated a vision for what comes next.
Which brings us, then, to our movement’s R.
Responsibility.
CharterFolk responsibility.
The responsibility to bring forward what few others can.
Vision.
Ideas.
Crisp ideas.
Policy innovations.
Such that we collectively arrive at the final R we all so need.
Not just CharterFolk, but AllFolk.
A complete re-imagining of public education as we know it.